OT: Burn, Baby, Burn

OK, we’re going very off topic for this one. In fact, we’re talking the antithesis of documentary wedding photography. I mean, there is no way that this is a real moment on someone’s big day:

Burning Bride
(c) John Michael Cooper
www.altf.com

So, what is it doing here? Well, granted, it’s not documentary but it is a spectacular picture and this is my blog, so I get to do pretty much anything I want to.

John Michael Cooper is considered the founding light of a movement among wedding photographers that goes by the name of Trash the Dress. It’s not an official body or anything, just a collective of photographers who have been able to convince their brides that “Honestly, you’re daughter is not going to wear the dress in 25 years’ time and you won’t fit into it anyway by then, so why not have some fun NOW?”

There are blogs and the work is getting a lot of attention. Well, they would, wouldn’t they? I mean, a dress can go for anything from €1,000 to €1,000,000 depending on whose opening the purse strings. And look what they’re suggesting you do with it.

Personally, I like the idea of doing something dramatic with the dress after the wedding. Don’t get me wrong - I still think the day should be about the moment and the story of the wedding. But an anti-fashion shoot afterwards would be a lot of fun. So much so, that I have a plot brewing.

Meanwhile, check out Cooper’s site at www.altf.com.

And tomorrow, I’ll be posting a link to a video that shows how the picture here was taken.