Origins Of The Wedding Photojournalist
Photographer, Dennis Reggie during his days at Tulane University worked for the yearbook as well as local newspapers. He used the same approach to telling wedding day stories and by 1987, the New York Times was declaring him "the hottest photographer of the moment."
It was Dennis who took the famous photo of John Kennedy Jr. kissing Carolyn Bessette's hand in 1996, which became the defining moment for the introduction of the term wedding photojournalism into the modern lexicon.
By the late 90's and early 2000's more and more experienced newspaper photographers were moonlighting as wedding photographers. Like any natural pendulum swing, as the movement gained popularity, more and more brides started seeking it and more magazines began to popularize it. The emphasis was moved away from the focus being a "perfect photo" toward capturing a "perfect moment."
Modern Wedding Photojournalism
It's harder to tell today who trained as a photojournalist and who simply uses it to describe their style. With the demise of newspapers and magazines, there are fewer actively working staff photographers. Combined with the increase of advertorial magazines, where they leverage the advertisers in their magazine to provide editorial content, simply being published doesn't show competency.
It's not a requirement to have a newspaper or agency background to be considered professional wedding photojournalist but it require training. There are many different ways to go about that ranging from apprenticeship to other forms of education.
What is important is to research the background of your potential wedding photographer and determine if they indeed possess the skill set or is this simply the term they use to cover apparent inadequacies within their photos. A perfect moment doesn't have to be a perfect picture, but it should be intentional and skillfully crafted.
