Until Death Do Us Part

 

 

by Jim Casper, editor-in-chief of online photography magazine LensCulture

 

 

Foreword to Katarina Radović's monograph Until Death Do Us Part, Belgrade, 2011

 

 

 

Wedding ceremonies can be quirky most of the time. Bizarre, centuries-old rituals, traditions, and superstitions reign on most wedding days. When cultures collide and bring unlikely foreign customs together, the ceremonial conglomeration can be downright funny, strange, touching, and intriguing.

 

A wedding is intended to be a once-in-a-lifetime event, and it can be one of the most significant days in someone’s life. So, the photo album – the official and unofficial wedding pictures – all take on great significance. Having the evidence and proof of the event (preserving the moment) can often seem as important as the moment itself. 

 

This idea of photographic ‘proof’ of the marriage event, and as a souvenir, came into existence immediately after the birth of photography itself. Indeed, the first known photograph to document a wedding was made for Prince Albert and Queen Victoria in 1840 – even though that first wedding photograph had probably been made after the real wedding – a re-enactment photographed to record a moment in history after the fact. 

 

The contemporary genre of wedding photography has its own set of traditions, rituals, expectations and assumptions. Many weddings are orchestrated by seasoned wedding photography professionals, who call the shots and herd members of the wedding party through a series of premeditated moments to be captured on film. These staged events (staged happiness and togetherness and perfection) obviously vary from culture to culture. But there are entire photographic industries dedicated to generating and recording ‘memories’ of the special day. 

 

This is where the significance of Katarina Radović’s two-year project becomes so timely and interesting. As an outsider who has requested an invitation to attend and photograph many, many cross-cultural wedding ceremonies, she has compiled a sociological overview of modern 21^st century weddings throughout Europe that are at once unusual, candid, mundane, amusing, poignant, and abundantly informative. 

 

Katarina Radović was not there to stoke the fantasy or generate the gloss of propaganda. She was there to record what happened, and how it looked from an outsider’s perspective. Beyond the frame of the staged, posed, perfect pictures photographed for posterity – a whole other reality exists.

 

Her photographs capture tender situations, as well as awkward moments, silly times, and when people seem to have stepped outside of their real selves and day-to-day lives to play a role for a day. Many of the ceremonial situations feel a bit forced, with everyone outside their normal comfort zones, yet trying to stay on their best behavior, to not offend, to play along. Each wedding is a unique, rare occasion, in which a bunch of people are tossed together (by choice or obligation) from all walks of life for less than 24 hours – a short coming-together of disparate characters, only to disperse again, remaining connected only through the photographs in a wedding album, which is then cherished like a personal trophy.

 

Katarina Radović’s photographs record what happened when cultures collided, on-stage, behind the scenes, and just outside the frames, as witnessed by a sharp observer, not officially part of the party. The detached photographer shows us some awkward moments, not with a mean spirit, but just for what is there. Her gaze is neutral, with no judgment, merely stating the facts, and perhaps catching what was not intended to be caught by a camera.

 

This is a rich trove of treasures for all of us – a universal cross-cultural wedding album from the early 21^st century.