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Ian Weldon

I Am Not A Wedding Photographer

Ian Weldon I am invited to go to Barcelona and do a lecture about my work, nothing unusual about that at all. However, on my arrival, I learn that the attendees are wedding photographers and I am a little bit thrown as I had not been told this beforehand. Being a big fan of taking photos at weddings, I retrieve some of my efforts and add these to my talk.

If you look at his blurb, Ian plugs this line about NOT being a wedding photographer. I know what he means, but this clever strap line is deceptive as he is the most real wedding photographer I have ever encountered. He shows us the wedding as it really is, while most wedding photographers are out there to create fantasies and fairytales.

In the ensuing discussions, we talk about wedding photography. I have been at these when the photographer leaves after the first dance, just when I assume the action is about to really start. We discuss these and other wedding-related issues. Someone asks me if I know the work of Ian Weldon, saying he’s right up my street. I don’t but make a note of his name.

Ian also turns out to be very learned in the field of photography. He knows his photo history and also does a fortnightly podcast called ‘Outerfocus’. He invites guests to contribute and discuss in their work the likes of Walker Evans and other great luminaries.

A few days later I look him up and am pleasantly surprised by his folio; for here is a photographer who shoots weddings as they really are: comical family occasions, with too much drink and wild things happening. You may think, well of course he would, but if you look at the award-winning wedding photographers they nearly all pander to the normal schmaltz that is so dominant in the industry. So I drop Ian a line, and say let’s try and meet. He lives in Newcastle and I have a trip there coming. Ian picks me up from the airport and it turns out he’s tried to get people interested in his work, through the normal photo channels, galleries, magazines etc. But he has never been taken seriously; his work is rejected as just being wedding photography. So, undaunted by that stereotype, here we are just over a year later with a show at the Martin Parr Foundation and a book co-published with RRB. We take his work very seriously. The images will make you smile as all the indiscretions, bad dancing and excessive behaviour are so well documented. These qualities are what makes wedding photography so special.

So sit back and enjoy these photos, it’s like being at a wedding without the hangover and having to watch bad dad dancing. Martin Parr

Ian Weldon was born in the north of England but didn’t hang around for very long. With a previous job list including: Milkman, Salesman, Soldier and HGV Driver he was always on the move. Photography came to him later in life, at the age of 30, and he started to photograph weddings to make money so he could pursue other photography projects. Turns out, weddings actually became his project. Disgruntled with the industry’s arbitrary rules and traditions, Ian saw a need for a more documentary approach to weddings. He began to make a body of work surrounding an industry and culture that he saw as antiquated, photographing the reality in his own irreverent and humorous way. This is how Ian sees weddings. He is not a wedding photographer.

The photographs are reproduced and printed at Taylor Brothers, Bristol, UK Printed in Bristol, UK

ISBN 9781999727550 rrbphotobooks.com

martinparrfoundation.org