This is exemplified by the way Dante thought about himself and his surroundings during his time in Hell. While in the Fourth Bolgia, Dante sees the souls of fortune tellers who are living out their time in perfect justice. He feels pity for them and begins to weep. But Virgil rebukes Dante: “”Still? Still like other fools? There is no place for pity here. Who is more arrogant within his soul, who is more impious than one who dares to sorrow at God’s judgement?”

As Dante moves onward and upward, his view of God changes—but not because God is changing, for He is perfect and always has been. Leaving behind feelings of pity, sorrow, and eventually his own sin, Dante embraces and deeply loves that Living Radiance that has been meant for him all along. As he changes, he grows worthier to perceive God and his soul expands in awareness.

Like Dante, Christians are on a journey towards God Himself. In today’s culture, a real temptation is to feel pity (like Dante did) for those who are living in denial of God’s righteous rule—but we must not. Instead, we are called to forget what is behind and strain toward what is ahead, pressing on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called us heavenward in Christ Jesus.

The first day came. With my temporary badge, I walked through the doors and into the sea of my new co-workers. The first week dragged by as I watched training videos in a dark room while the summer sun taunted me with every passing hour.

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“Ship dock” was my assigned department, and our routine was as follows: seven a.m. clock in, huddle, stretch, and get to work for the next five hours. Lunch break. Look at the sun. Back to work for five more hours. The days were long and full of objectively odd people and objectively odd experiences.

Some of my most-conversed-with co-workers were: a Chinese man with a serious case of jabber jaw, a string bean of a lady who lived in (and routinely talked about) her trailer park, and a local college girl in the same boat as me—just trying to make some money.

What the job taught me is that people are lazy. Maybe not all people, but those college aged guys who wander around trying to look busy—those ones are lazy. Slow to work, quick to leave. There was one particular lazy guy who I met only once, but he created a story I have replayed in my mind dozens of times.

One of the many tasks I was given was that of loading packages into semi truck trailers. One fateful day, I was asked to help this guy fill his trailer. I entered the ninety-eight degree metal box and started stacking. Normally, humans talk to each other if they’re doing a task together in close proximity. Not this guy. He stacked a few boxes, cracked a joke, and then told me he was off to grab some water. He never came back.

But more than his absence, I was left with his wobbling wall of boxes. Mr. “I’m off to grab water” was about half way done with his stacked packages (of all sizes and weights, from floor to ceiling) when I had come to help him. He left when we were almost finished. I stood back from the wall and realized that it looked like it might collapse.

Out of thin air, string bean lady appeared and wanted to help with the next wall. I told her the previous stacking job was janky and suggested we try to build another wall quickly. So with our hard hats fastened, we laid the bottom layer of boxes with much strategy and speed.

Then a box thudded next to my steel toed shoe. I looked up and the wall was inching forward. “The wall is falling,” I said to string bean lady. She looked up, and sure enough, it was about to tumble. Shuffling out of the way just in time, we stood in awe as hundreds of boxes collapsed. Fall did the wall indeed. Then she was off (maybe to grab water?) and I was abandoned—again.

Standing there like a stone, the worst of all the managers came in yelling, asking what had happened and if I was injured. Her attitude was almost as fiery and bombastic as her bright red, pixie-cut hair, and the words coming off her tongue were delayed by the ring hanging on her lip. I knew what came next, but I needed just a moment longer to make sure none of her attitude had grabbed onto me.

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Wedding photography has evolved from capturing the day to curating it. The main reason for such an evolution is that the modern wedding photographer has now traded truth, goodness, and beauty for lies, selfishness, and gaudiness. In each of these areas, the modern wedding photographer has failed to meet the standard by compromising on every level.

To understand the ways in which the modern wedding photographer has fallen short, it must be clear what the standard is that he has failed to meet. Truth, goodness, and beauty are the virtues that he is held to. All things done well must aim at and hit all three virtues in order to be worthy of any consideration, glory, or joy.

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The modern wedding photographer has abandoned truth. The photographer does this by lying about the facts of the day they’ve been hired to document. The first lie is exposed during the ceremony—at the first kiss. Behold, that joyous moment, when the bride and groom are just announced as husband and wife.

The officiant tells the man he may kiss his bride. The congregation explodes in excitement for the new household just inaugurated. But the photographer doesn’t like how this scene looks. The frame would look much better if that old gray head was not sticking out behind the couple. So he tells the officiant to move before the ceremony, shoos him out of the way in the moment, or removes him with Photoshop. One photographer unashamedly states,

One last thing that we will help make your wedding ceremony photos and video perfect is for the officiant to step aside before the first kiss. Photographers would prefer it if we didn’t have to edit out your officiant’s head (or microphone stand) emerging from your groom’s shoulder. Instead, how much nicer if they’re off to the side, cheering for you! And bonus points if they take the mic stand with them!

This type of verbiage makes the photographer’s intent seem considerate and helpful, but the end goal is deceit. This lie reveals that the wedding has been reduced to mere aesthetics. The photo may look better if there isn’t an old gray head sticking out behind the groom’s shoulder. But it is a lie. That old grey head was there, and it was doing the officiating. To remove him is fundamentally to lie about what happened.

While this scenario may be the key offender when it comes to such dishonesty, the photographer can lie about other scenes as well. A kid is making an ugly face in the family photo? Edit him out. The tears weren’t gushing during the maid of honor’s speech? Add them in. The bridesmaids’ dresses weren’t the best color? Change them.

The photographer holds the keys to the door of truth, and, depending on his preferences, the door will be unlocked or will be sealed shut. “The elements which, together, can strike sparks from a subject, are often scattered—either in terms of space or time—and bringing them together by force is “stage management,” and, I feel, contrived.” There is no truth in forced moments. Lying for the purpose of aesthetics is pointless. Let the sparks fly and scatter; they are meant to.

The second virtue that the modern wedding photographer has dismissed is goodness. Instead, he pursues selfishness. Consumed with his ideals, he treats his clients as a means to an end. The photographer has dreamt up a perfect day and it will go as he has planned—never mind the thoughts and feelings of his clients.

But a photographer who can’t separate his ideals from reality risks creating some weird moments. One of these moments can take place during the first look between the bride and groom. The two of them have waited all day to see their soon to be spouse. The anticipation, the nerves, the excitement have been building for hours. With each step more monumental than the last, the bride approaches her groom… with the photographer in tow. She lifts her hand to tap his shoulder, and hears the aggressive clicking of a camera in her ear. The two of them are not alone. The groom turns to see her, but his eyes bounce to the tippy-toed photographer at her shoulder. The thought enters their minds, “will the photographer leave us alone after a few shots?”

They unfortunately find out that they will not get a moment alone. The photographer must be present in every passing second. Choking the sweet moments that could have happened, the photographer is a strangling vine. Wrapping himself around every aspect of the day, he restricts the true authenticity that he is aiming to document.

Another instance of this overstepping is during the “under the veil shot” where the couple is cozied up under a long, dramatic veil. The main issue isn’t necessarily with the concept, but with what it leads to.

Most of the time, the photographer takes the opportunity to hop under the veil with his couple, in order to get the perfect shot.

“It is very hard to shoot a veil shot without a 35mm lens or wider. You’ll need to get under the veil WITH the couple which brings you VERY close. It’s hard to focus if you’re using above a 35mm lens so go wide!” One photographer writes.

By including himself in the intimate space of a couple, the photographer displays how minuscule his respect for the couple is. A photographer who has any regard for his clients would never insert himself into that moment. He would instinctively respect his clients as individuals living one of the most grand moments of their life, not as mannequins needing to be posed.

The third virtue that the modern wedding photographer has left behind is beauty. In exchange for true beauty, the photographer prefers gaudiness. A shallow aesthetic takes over the glory of a beautiful day—a beautiful moment.

The main reason photographers have lost their eye for true, rich beauty stems from an obsession with social media. In a world where you must post something on Instagram in order to validate a moment, the photographer is caught in a trap of trends. Moments like under the veil, sharing secrets, and lying in a field are all examples of photo trends that do not capture real beauty.

These moments compromise on beauty in a variety of ways, chief of which is that the real beauty of a wedding day is not found in perfectly posed moments that go up on Instagram. Beauty at its fullest is found in moments that organically happen.

Candid. Unposed. Unprompted.

The existence of Instagram and individuals who post wedding photos on that platform is not the biggest problem. It is the laser-focus that the photographer has on specific, trending aesthetics.

Posing and prompting and pushing a couple into moments purely for the sake of a photograph is what we should take issue with. It is the flashy, showy, brassy pictures that will hold no meaning for the couple, nor for their family, nor for their future generations. But the photographer forgets this. Instead, his brain is occupied with how many likes, comments, or reposts his photos will get, planting him in Instagram Land for the entirety of the wedding day.

The impact that Instagram has had on every aspect of life should make us all a bit uneasy, but the pressures surrounding wedding photos is unique. Vogue published a piece titled, How to Post Your Wedding Photos on Instagram, stating, “It’s best to know how to post wedding photos on Instagram or you could risk ending up as a screenshot in a group chat—of people who secretly just want to be invited to your wedding.”

The reason wedding photos are posted, the speed at which they are uploaded, the target audience: all of these factors determine the photographer’s desire to curate trendy shots. Afterall, it is their photos that may end up in a group chat where the hot gossip is all about how excluded some people feel—but at least the photos are on point!

By definition, beauty is fleeting. It does not last. There are beautiful moments though, that while fleeting, should be documented for the purpose of being remembered. A wedding day is the prime example.

One day, one ceremony, one covenant, one flesh—a story that will be retold for generations. Real smiles, loud laughter, authentic emotions, all accurately captured by the photographer. What a task! A true honor and a job that should not be taken lightly!

The beauty of the marriage covenant is weighty. The glory of such a union is heavier than the fluff of an Instagram post. The eternal tying of souls is significant beyond a photograph. And thus, when it is captured, it ought to be captured well. Documented in truth, goodness, and beauty—not for the sake of Instagram.

The modern wedding photographer has jumped ship on truth, goodness, and beauty—and he knows it. Suppressing the truth does not make it go away, neither does it suddenly become less necessary. By lying about the wedding day itself, choosing selfishness over goodness, and preferring gaudiness to beauty, the photographer has brutally missed the mark.

However, a wedding photographer who meets the standard is one who loves truth. Who loves goodness. Who loves beauty. He simply notices how the wedding day plays out and rides the waves as they fall toward him.

The weight of being trusted to document a couple’s wedding day sits heavy on his shoulders. He is not blown about by trends, social pressure, or pride. He is steady, knowing that he has been given a task that requires much of him.

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