Modern commitments
Apart from advertising on websites aimed at the gay community, Kelvin Brown and his fellow social photographers have found value in attending wedding shows targeted at same-sex couples. Online wedding directory Pink Wedding Days has a couple of forthcoming shows arranged for Bristol (25 March) and London (29 April).
MD Andrew Smith is keen to point out that both gay and straight photographers are welcome to attend. “As a company we’re all about integration not segregation,” he explains. “London needs a wedding show aimed at the gay market,” Brown nods. “It’s a gap in the market, because nobody’s done a show for a year and a half. The South East of England – London and Brighton – is where the largest customer base is.”
Smith agrees that, gay or straight, everybody is looking for the same thing: the best quality service. “There will be everything at the shows that you’d expect from a traditional wedding fair, but with a bit of twist. I don’t know why, but people seem to have a much better time at ours. The feedback we have from people is that the atmosphere is great.”
The charge for exhibiting at the London show is £450, although Smith adds that Bristol is cheaper at £250. Photographers can also advertise to the gay community on the company’s website – there are three annual packages to choose from. Around 1000 already do so.
“We don’t ask photographers whether they’re gay or straight,” Smith says. “At the end of the day it’s nothing to do with us. All we ask from them when they advertise with us is that they offer the same level of service to a gay or lesbian couple as they offer a straight couple. If we hear that’s not the case, then they’ll be removed from the site and no refunds will be given.
“But it’s all about quality,” he reiterates. “If straight photographers tell us they haven’t got a picture of a gay couple, because not every photographer has just yet – even though 16,000 civil partnerships have taken place – then no problem, because the client isn’t going to automatically want something different. That said, because we also deal in sorting out venues, we’ve had wedding coordinators saying to us: ‘I don’t want to do straight weddings any more, I only want to do the gay weddings because they’re so much more fun.’ They are very different and photographers relish getting involved in them.”
Straight thinking
Although we asked several traditional wedding photographers to contribute to this article, some said they didn’t have any strong opinions on the matter, while others simply hadn’t shot or attended a civil partnership. Social photographer St John Pope is one straight photographer, however, looking to make inroads into the gay wedding market, but like many until now, he’s viewed it as a big step and not really known where to begin.
“I did a civil partnership wedding last year, which went fine, but I was coming at it from a point of ignorance to be honest,” he admits. “It was two girls getting married who got in touch via my website, simply because they liked my pictures. But I have started to look into the market in more detail and will be including images of the civil ceremony in my website redesign.”
Pope says there was no issue regarding sexuality when the booking was made because the couple themselves were aware and sophisticated. “It was a fun, family event,” he notes. “Both sets of parents were fairly cool – parents can be a bit mad sometimes on wedding days. But prior to that, they hadn’t really thought about photography as something they would do, so maybe there’s some education that needs to be done to say that civil partnerships can have a photographer there too. As a hard-headed marketing person, I would be happy to pitch prices lower to motivate the growth of that area.”
Pope adds that he found his civil ceremony shoot not only a more interesting and unusual assignment but also more relaxing because it was more of a celebration, and avoided the traditional wedding day stress. “It’s difficult. I don’t know whether gay and lesbian couples would feel more comfortable with a gay photographer, and straight photographers, perhaps stupidly, do worry about these kind of things,” he acknowledges. “Like any social situation, you have to go in and try not to put your foot in it. As long as you come across as genuine and the clients like you, that’s all you need. It’s a brave new world and I’d like to do more of it.”
As long as photographers remain open-minded and non-judgemental, it seems the only barriers to photographers growing their businesses are mental ones. “The gay couples I’ve worked with wouldn’t have had a problem with a straight photographer, as long as he or she was comfortable working in that environment,” Karen Julia adds. “In terms of getting the photography done, weddings are quite fast paced, so there’s no room for having issues. Couples want to feel comfortable with who’s around them, whether they’re straight or gay.”Although perhaps still a daunting prospect, it’s clear that when it comes to gay weddings, it literally pays not to think straight.
