END FRAME
All three photos © steve Mccurry
Below: The cover of McCurry’s book Portraits. Above, left to right: Kuchi shepherd, Srinagar, Kashmir, 1995. Dancers wait backstage to perform in Basilan, Philippines, 1985.
A devotee holds cigarettes to a statue of his spiritual guru at Swedagon Pagoda in Rangoon, Myanmar (Burma), 1995.
BREAKING OUT OF THE
WEDDING PHOTO BUBBLE
I looked up to in the wedding industry. But what I’ve found
is that opening up and looking at different types of photog-
raphers and being taught by them has been actually more
inspirational for me.”
Hall says her biggest mentor has been Magnum photog-
rapher steve Mccurry. as she was learning photography, she
© phAidon/photo by steve Mccurry
says, “I had his Portraits book and I traveled around with it and looked at it every night.”
she adds, “I taught myself using his book—just looking at his images and shooting.”
It can be difficult, she notes, to make time to seek out new sources of inspiration.
“It is very easy to allow life to take over and to forget [to look],” she says. “What
happens then, is you start to feel burned out because you’re not growing anymore.
“I love photography today more than I’ve ever loved photography, but if I
hadn’t broken out of that [wedding photography] bubble I don’t know if I would
feel that way.”
In our artIcle “crossover HIts” (page 22), tHree
photographers who shoot weddings discuss the steps
they’ve taken to expand their businesses by landing
ad jobs and other non-wedding work.
For catherine Hall, who is profiled in the article,
continuing to develop her career means not only looking for new opportunities for assignments, but also
seeking new sources of inspiration.
“even wedding photographers who only shoot
weddings should look for inspiration outside of
wedding photography,” Hall says. “I think that’s one
of the biggest faults of wedding photographers,
and I was like this for a long time—we live in this
little bubble.”
there was a period, Hall says, when she was feeling burned out. Her studio manager suggested she expand beyond the wedding photography industry for ideas
and education. Hall notes, “Before, I would have looked to immediate peers, people
