A PETITION to “improve working conditions for wedding photographers in churches” — who’ve been accusing clerics of “abusive” behaviour towards them — has attracted almost 1000 signatures.
The petition on change.org refers back to the “huge issue across the marriage photography industry” of clergy, who, it alleges, are “rude, humiliating, aggressive and abusive”. The petition calls for a “public conversation . . . to enable change”.
Ed Lloyd Owen, a society wedding photographer, described the initiative “as a storm in a teacup”: he had not signed the petition and didn’t intend to, he told the Church Times this week. He saw the problem as a matter of co-operation.
“There is at all times going to be some friction between two people attempting to do their jobs and getting in one another’s way barely,” he said. “It’s overcome by simply ensuring you speak to one another. I also observe the rule of no flash and don’t go near ‘the bubble’. I wear smart clothes (normally tails) and rubber-sole shoes, only move during hymns, and use silent cameras with long lenses.”
His view was not removed from that of the previous Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Williams, who told The Sunday Times this week: “While some vicars could be a complete pain and over-controlling to a level, clergy too must have the option to do their jobs.”
It was reasonable, he said, for officiating clerics to ask photographers “to not be intrusive during a service when something significant is presupposed to be happening on the spiritual level”.
Mr Lloyd Owen agreed that “a marriage isn’t in regards to the photographer, but about something a bit special and, dare I say, holy between two people. It’s not about whether or not I get a shot, but when that may be a couple’s priority then they need to probably rethink why they’ve selected a church wedding. It cuts each ways.”
As a guest at weddings, Mr Lloyd Owen had “seen photographers behave really badly in church, and it’s toe-curling. I’ve even seen a vicar stop proceedings and tell the photographer what’s what.”
The petition suggests that “wedding video/photographers are greater than joyful to be respectable, flexible, and non-obtrusive”. It continues: “More and more couples are selecting to not marry in church whilst increasingly video/photographers are avoiding taking work in churches for this reason [conflict].”
The General Synod heard last month how greater than 30,000 services of marriage or dedication in 2023 were a “wonderful opportunity” for ministry (News, 1 March). It approved a discount within the fee for a marriage in church from £528 to £505.
