Smithsonian magazine's 22nd Annual Photo Contest | Made possible through the support of MPB.com

19th Annual Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest People
The decisive moment

I ran into this scene accidentally while exploring a little town in south of France. Everyone was already in the church except for the priest, the photographer and the bride and they too were heading there. It was one of those moments when you know that someone’s life changes forever and that someone stands right in front of you. I took another photograph from another angle but somehow the bride’s tension and intensity is more noticeable (or sensible) from the behind angle rather than from the front one. Maybe this is why I love that shot. It does not capture a happy emotion, but a raw, tense atmosphere which is rarely visible in staged wedding photoshoots. For the same reason, I never touched the image for post-processing and left it just as raw as it was.

Photo Detail
Date Taken: 10.2020
Date Uploaded: 09.2021
Photo Location: Grasse, France
Camera: EZ Controller
Copyright: © Elene Mgaloblishvili