Why photography? Out of love and for work. I am a professional who has never stopped being an amateur, or rather, an enthusiast.
And why weddings?
I started photographing weddings out of opportunity and necessity. Where I lived, that was the kind of work available to a photographer just starting out. But I have to confess that, when I started in 1979, I didn’t actually want to be a wedding photographer. I wanted to be a travel photographer and see the world with a camera in my hand. To overcome my frustration, I asked myself: why should it be difficult or impossible to take good photographs at a wedding? And since it seemed like a challenge, I thought it must be incredibly exciting to solve that problem. I wanted to fulfil my creative ambitions within the wedding setting, so alongside the obligatory shots, I would sometimes take a special photograph, thinking that 20, 30 or 40 years later, that particular shot would be worth even more.
juan de la cruz megías
I asked myself: why should it be difficult or impossible to take good photographs at a wedding? And since it seemed like a challenge, I thought it must be incredibly exciting to solve that problem.
For decades, wedding, christening and communion photography was looked down upon by the art world, relegated to the category of purely commercial photography. With the perspective that comes with time, at what exact point do the everyday images of a family celebration stop belonging to the private sphere and become a sociological document of an era?
All vernacular photography, family albums and wedding photography practise a form of free and independent documentary photography. I therefore believe they are created to capture the sociological moment in which they are taken and, from that perspective, have significance beyond the purely private sphere from the very moment they are made. It is also true that the passage of time gives them a value that can be difficult to appreciate at first, especially when social, economic or political changes distance us, personally or emotionally, from what those photographs captured.
The evolution of celebrations: Having documented thousands of celebrations over several decades, how has society itself changed through what happens at these gatherings? Beyond fashion and clothing, has the way we express joy or let go in front of a camera changed?
Today’s weddings have lost the spontaneity and freshness of earlier times. Nowadays, there are wedding planners with a script to follow, and the carefully staged setting for couples and guests makes it harder for surprises or anecdotes to emerge. Sometimes, rather than wedding photographs, they are more like fashion photographs, especially when the pictures are taken days or weeks after the celebration.
JUAN DE LA CRUZ MEGÍAS
Today’s weddings have lost the spontaneity and freshness of earlier times.
The everyday versus the idyllic: There is a famous saying that the exuberance of certain photographs is simply due to the fact that they belong to an exuberant world. At a time when the industry tends to favour clean, minimalist and highly stylised images for social media, what aesthetic and historical value comes from embracing imperfection, messy tables or the eccentricity of a party?
In my opinion, wedding photographs should be believable and real, without adding anything to or taking anything away from reality. I don’t think it is right to manipulate them using computer software. If we appear imperfect, messy or eccentric, then that is simply who we are. We should learn to be happy in the world within our reach, without needing to seek out a fictional one. The Stoics already taught us that accepting ourselves is an essential condition for achieving emotional freedom and inner peace.
JUAN DE LA CRUZ MEGÍAS
In my opinion, wedding photographs should be believable and real, without adding anything to or taking anything away from reality.
Born in Murcia, 1959. Juan de la Cruz Megías published 4 books, two about Weddings: BODAS 1979 -1999 (1999), and VIVAN LOS NOVIOS (2005), both sold out.
His new book “Bodas” is now available from the publisher Ojos de Buey
