Mid-May 2022 I was on my way to Goldsmiths, University of London where I spend three months as a visiting scholar at the centre for visual anthropology. At the bus stop just in front of the university the poster ad of a bank has been placed in a frame covered by a glass surface. On the advertisement four wedding couples are depicted from left to right: the first couple is photographed in black and white, the others in colour photography. The arrangement clearly refers to a chronological order of weddings. Whereas the black and white image is the oldest picture that is recognisable by the clothing. It shows a white couple. The second shows a white woman and a black man probably from the seventies. Then again a white couple follows from the eighties with the bride’s dress in puffed sleeves that somehow reminds of Lady Di’s wedding dress. And finally a lesbian couple concludes the round dance of wedding couples. The black horse provides some dynamic that maybe symbolizes the time that is quickly passing.
Culturally diverse couples
The style of the wedding photography didn’t change much only the two brides are hugging each other from the front. The mixed race couple deviate from the black and white scheme whereas the rest is reiterating the black colour for the groom and the white colour for the bride. In the ad of the same series but published in the Evening Standard June 1, 2022 some more couples are included that provide more cultural diversity. The change is above all cultural and aesthetic. It’s not about the institution of marriage which isn’t questioned at all. Only the lesbian couple is new to the legal dimension of marriage that has been passed by the parliament in 2013 in the UK.
Between tradition and change
What the photograph definitely shows is that the lesbian couples takes part in a tradition and a lifestyle that is connected with specific values and norms and supported by the bank. Namely to be married for a lifetime, to build a future, and to own a house – most likely with the financial support of a particular bank –, and to start a family. The ad highlights how traditions like the weddings are created and adapted over time. They are based on norms regarding gender, lifestyle, aesthetics, and rituals. On one side the depiction lets us know that gay people are accepted in the institution of marriage and on the other side they have to adapt to these norms that are present since a long time. The ad defends existing values that are progressing in time like the black horse that gallops along the temporal axis of the wedding couples. The horse and the bank let the passers-by know that the institution of marriage is changing and at the same time connected to a tradition. A paradox that will be addressed several more times in my blog in the future.