What We Hope to See

On choosing a photographer, and the place of a personal eye.

Beautiful photographs are not enough to make someone a good professional photographer. I agree with that. What interests me is how easily an explanation of everything else the job requires can leave the photographs themselves somewhere in the background.

Two conversations brought me back to this question. In one, Pierre Magne describes the demands of a commission (in French): understanding the request, preparing for difficulties and delivering what was promised in circumstances you may not have chosen. An impressive portfolio cannot establish all of that.

In the other, wedding photographer Greg Finck explains to Pauline Laigneau why beautiful photographs do not sell themselves (in French). He gives considerable weight to service and to the relationship with the couple, who will spend much of their wedding day in the photographer’s company. He also makes clear that the photographs must be impeccable for the clientele he serves. Their quality is a prerequisite, even though it cannot carry the business on its own.

I find both arguments convincing. I can admire an experienced amateur’s photographs more than those of a working professional and still understand the value of the professional’s service. I may be responding to a handful of images. The client needs someone who can take responsibility for a whole assignment.

Yet that still leaves a question about the photographs themselves: how much does their aesthetic quality matter in the client’s choice, and what are they willing to invest in it?

Earlier in their conversation, Pauline speaks about her own wedding. She paid €5,000 for her wedding photographer in France in 2013, a sum Greg places at the very top of the market at the time. She explains that she has always been sensitive to images and knew she wanted to devote an important part of her budget to them.

Her reason interests me more than the amount. Her sensitivity to images had influenced a decision about an occasion that mattered to her. I read her remark as an expression of an expectation that can receive too little attention when we explain professional photography mainly through service: a client may also care deeply about the aesthetic qualities of the photographs they will receive.

Coverage of a wedding can be what someone commissions, while a particular photographic approach helps determine whom they choose. They want the important moments recorded and their loved ones included. They may also recognise something in a photographer’s work that makes them want those people and moments photographed by that person.

No technical vocabulary is needed for this. Someone may respond to a body of work without being able to explain precisely what draws them to it. They may discover a way of photographing people they had not imagined. The pleasure of recognising someone can be bound up with the way they have been photographed, so that the emotional attachment and the photographic qualities are experienced together.

In a crowded field, that response can be a reason to choose one photographer over another. Producing work we consider better does not ensure that someone will choose us. But the attention we give to the images may meet an equally strong interest on the other side of the commission.

You can explore my photographs in my portfolio.