A Photographic Journey Through a Khmer Wedding in Cambodia:

A Photographer’s Look Behind the Scenes

As a  photographer that has photographed many weddings, it was very interesting for me to see the many differences between what I do in the US, and what I saw behind the scenes at Sah Paun and Vwin’s wedding. I thought I would share some of these observations in this follow up post.

I have been to quite a few Asian weddings, particularly in India. In fact the first wedding I ever photographed was an Indian-Pakistani wedding. This Cambodian wedding however was the most intricate wedding I have ever seen.

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It was clear to me right off that no one person knew every detail of every ceremony and event that took place, particularly not the bride and groom. A wedding like this is really a team effort. To me what looked like chaos, came together into a very successful two-day event with the help of elder relatives, friends, and hired professionals. In particular the wedding photographer seemed to play a leading role.

During every ceremony and event, the photographer was there being very vocal about what and how things should be happening. More on him later.

Throughout the Khmer wedding, the couple is attired in matching brightly colored silk costumes. Often, even the wedding party (groomsmen and bridesmaids) are wearing coordinating colors. Each ceremony has its own color scheme, so the wedding party has to change outfits in-between almost every ceremony.

For the bride, this usually means changing her hairstyle and jewelry as well as her dress. I believe she changed into 7 different dresses.

So Sah Paun had a dedicated team of make up stylists and attendants for her and the bridal party in the back room. they made sure everything was as it should be.

It also meant a photo shoot every time there was a costume change. Before every ceremony, the photographer shot a series of formal photos documenting of all the outfits.

Formal shots like these are at the core of a Khmer wedding photo album. There is page after page of nearly the same pose, just different costumes, and you almost never see any one smiling. Pushing the couples heads to tilt in toward one another seemed very important. Perhaps to show affection? I don’t know. I had a great time capturing my shots like the one above just after his when people relaxed and smiled.

This photographer was a “director”. For every ceremony he shouted and aggressively pushed people into the exact position and pose he wanted for the shot. Sometimes he would even stop the ceremony and tell people to do something differently or again to get what he wanted. No one seems to mind. This intervention seems perfectly natural to everyone.

OK, so those of you who are not photographers, please excuse this slightly techy critique of the lighting. You can sort of see from the above shot that the photographer used a really simple set up for these formal shots.  As his key light, not seen, are two bare strobes high to the left and right of the couple giving a sort of rim light. He also had a strobe in an umbrella, seen above, as a fill light high behind him. It was set maybe a stop or two darker. The lights were optically slaved and triggered by his on camera flash. For the ceremonies he took down the umbrella and just used the bare strobes in the same position to blast the whole seen with a relatively even light.

Having his strobes optically slaved was great for me because I could piggy back onto is lighting. I just set my camera flash to a low setting and every time I took a shot, I triggered his flashes. By setting my exposure to match his flash settings, I got the advantage of his lighting with my every shot.

I have been shooting weddings as part of my photography business for years, and it was such a treat for me to shoot this one and not be on the job! It was so much more fun and relaxing. My wedding work is in a totally different style than what this guy did. I shoot weddings in an editorial or documentary style. I try to be a fly on the wall not getting in the way, not directing, or altering the flow of events.

I look for the candid and un-posed shots. The quiet moments that everyone else misses. The shots that tell the story as it actually happened, not as it is expected to happen. I almost never saw this photographer shoot a photograph that was not posed or choreographed.

I’m don’t try to be sneaky, but I like to get shots without the subject even knowing so they are reacting to the people and events around them, not my camera. I feel like that way I am not interfering. After all it is not about me. Of course sometimes I get busted trying like I did here with Sah Paun. Cambodians love to have their photos taken making this hand gesture.

… At any age. I have no idea what it means. I think it is supposed to be glamorous.

This was my favorite photographer moment. When he pulled up a chair right in the middle of the ceremony and sitting there started yelling directions and telling everyone what to do. Actually, I admire the guy for taking control of the situation and getting the job done. However, as a cultural outsider, I often felt like he was rude and made the moment about what he wanted, and not about the ceremony or the the bride and groom. But in the end, it is about making the client happy, and everyone at this wedding seemed happy.