Angela Cappetta (BFA, 1992), Teresa Horgan (BFA, 2000), John Saponara (BFA, 2000) and
Daisy Schenk (BFA, 1997) all graduated from the undergraduate photography department at SVA with great aspirations for careers in their field. After they finished at the College, they hit the streets and found work as photo assistants and/or freelance editorial or commercial photographers. And each of them found their way to the field of wedding photography, most by first shooting a friend's wedding; after that, one gig led to another and then another. Today, wedding photography makes up a good portion of the income of all four, but they all actively pursue other types of photography as well. Although they may not have expected to go down this path, each of them stands out for his or her fresh, offbeat approach.

"It takes you to exciting places." "You meet a lot of interesting people." "It's a real adrenaline rush." "It can be very intense, but I like the challenge." "It's fun to dress up and enjoy a party." These are some of the reasons Cappetta, Horgan, Saponara and Schenk cited for liking wedding photography assignments. They also say that getting to document and participate in a day of great energy and happiness offers an intimate view into people's lives. The psychology behind it is really interesting, says Schenk. "Behind all the glitz and glam, weddings are about the core of what we are—our families, our relationships."

But along with the excitement of photographing the "big day" comes a lot of pressure. This is, after all, a one-time event, with no opportunity to reshoot. Plus, the photographer is always expected to be at the right place and at the right time, and sometimes things don't go as planned; differing personalities and unreasonable expectations can present problems, but for Cappetta et al., there have been few complaints about unhappy or overly demanding clients.

Although each of the four photographers has his or her distinctive style, they all shy away from the traditional, cookie-cutter, "everyone-look-at-me-and-smile" approach. Their work tends to have a documentary, photojournalistic feel and avoids the sheen of absolute perfection. Often called "wedding photojournalism," this kind of picture-taking involves a minimal amount of posing and seeks to tell a story and capture the genuine essence of the day.

Teresa Horgan
"What I enjoy most is the anticipation and energy of the wedding day," says Teresa Horgan. "Everything comes together and the day represents the couple." For Horgan to best capture the event, she feels she must tell the whole story and create a visual document of the day. She has a talent for homing in on the sweet and sometimes quirky moments between the bride and groom or the guests.

Horgan also does other work, including lifestyle photography, travel photography, environmental portraits and child photography. Clients include Health Magazine, Every Day with Rachael Ray, Ladies Home Journal and Hudson Valley Magazine. For her, there is a big difference between wedding photography and the other work she does. She says: "When I do food photography, for example, you are in a studio with stylists and there is a shot list. It's a much more controlled and structured. It is also fun, but in a different way."

The lack of control and structure can make wedding photography challenging. One of the first things the photographer must do is get to the event on time. Horgan tells about the time that she got lost while scouting a location for a wedding that was to be held on a farm. The bride and groom wanted to have some shots of them taken with some of the farm animals, including pigs. In trying to find the animals, Horgan got completely lost and nearly missed the nuptials. "In the end I was only a few minutes late," she says, "but I really panicked, and all for pigs!"

John Saponara
John Saponara's approach to wedding photography is that each event is its own project. "I enjoy the challenge of making it new every time," Saponara says. "There are always different circumstances, with lighting, location, and so on. It keeps you on your toes."

There is a healthy variety to his wedding work, a reflection of the personality of each couple—some flamboyant, others quiet. The environment of each location, whether an outdoor setting or a banquet hall, plays an important role. Saponara usually tries to give his subjects room to breathe, showing their surroundings.

In addition to weddings, Saponara works on a variety of other photography projects—everything from portraits to interiors to chronicling a day in the life with his son in the first year of his life. "People like it that I'm not just a wedding photographer," Saponara says. "The variety of work I do keeps me fresh and avoids me getting stuck in a rut."

One of his most ambitious projects, Picture Black Friday, is an open call to photographers to document the shopping frenzy that takes place the Friday after Thanksgiving. Going on its third year, more than 60 photographers have participated and Aperture magazine will be publishing photos from the project in its fall issue.

Angela Cappetta
A self-described "photo dork," Angela Cappetta takes pictures almost every day, whether on assignment or for her personal work. Her enthusiasm and energy are palpable, as is her love for photography. She says: "Being a photographer is like being the coolest director of photography of the coolest movie ever— every day you get to do something different."

In her wedding work, Cappetta has traveled far and wide and to some unexpected places: once to a mountaintop in Turkey, once to a cave in France, once to a meat locker, and once to an amusement park for "I do's" onboard a roller coaster. She almost always shoots film and processes everything herself; she feels that the art of printing adds essential nuance and interpretation. Cappetta takes time to get to know the couple before their wedding day, and sometimes the relationship continues long afterward. She has photographed pregnancies, done family portraits and even chronicled the extended families of wedding-day clients, staying with and documenting their families as they change and grow over the years.

Besides weddings, her business includes advertising and commercial photography, private commission work and an assortment of ongoing personal projects. She says she makes no distinction between the different types of photography she does. "I shoot with the same level of commitment whether I'm shooting for Dos Equis beer or a wedding," she says. What­ever the subject or the client, her style is hyper-real and bold; she has a tendency to crop in tightly on her subjects, with heads or limbs sometimes left out of view.

One of her current personal projects involves documenting students of the Joffrey Ballet School. She is also shooting a series of landscapes that she calls "a love letter to the mountains." Cappetta's strong artistic sense and keen eye has caught the attention of galleries and museums; her work is in a number of prominent collections, including those of the New York Public Library, the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.