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The wedding photographer photographer was busier than ever. Couples had decided that typical wedding shots felt too clich\u00e9; they wanted photos that merely suggested the existence of these moments instead. The wedding photographer photographer was acknowledged as the best in the business. He understood how to capture the essence of a wedding photographer at work because he\u2019d been a wedding photographer before branching out to this extra, some would say\u00a0unnecessary<\/em>, level of remove. He\u2019d always been interested in the art of looking: at museums he was less concerned with observing the art, and more concerned with observing the people observing the art. He made notes: \u201cWoman folding arms impatiently; child with tongue sticking out; man pawing at his own goatee while looking at a chiaroscuro sketch by Van Dyck.\u201d The WPP began taking pictures of museumgoers who were deep\u2014almost erotically deep\u2014in the throes of the act of looking. His fascination with the second-hand extended even to his own marriage. He had become interested in watching his wife engage in acts of intimacy with strange men. (By which he meant strangers to him; the men didn\u2019t have to be particularly strange, and usually weren\u2019t.) In fact, watching her excited him more than being with her himself. This was not a deal breaker\u2014he\u2019d explained his proclivities early in their relationship. They\u2019d met at a wedding, actually. She was a wedding planner, and he was photographing the wedding photographer according to the nuptial couple\u2019s very specific needs (with a focus on the WP\u2019s two-toned bowling-style loafers, a particular fascination of the bride-to-be\u2019s). It was at the WPP\u2019s request that the voyeuristic scenarios with his own wife became more and more elaborate; a second-order element was added as a second stranger was hired to watch the wife\u2019s encounters, and the WPP took candid photos of this stranger. The WPP\u2019s wife especially liked these shots because of the expression the WPP was able to capture on the face of Stranger #2: usually a look of titillation mixed with confusion mixed with the terror of an interloper on the verge of being found out, even though he was an invited guest. Everything seemed to be going well for the WPP. His particular personal and professional desires were being largely satisfied. This is more, he thought, than most people could say\u2014until he noticed what seemed to be a new set of characters at the weddings he worked. These weren\u2019t the usual wedding crashers, nor relatives of the couple who\u2019d grown antisocial after an intrafamily spat. No. It was only after a handful of these weddings, and after talking to friends in the biz, that the WPP realized the truth: these new faces were wedding photographer photographer photographers. The WPPPs were hired to photograph him, and him alone. And the sudden switch from observer to observed unnerved the WPP more than he might have anticipated. He told his wife that he couldn\u2019t be part of a photography sandwich, to which she replied, rightly, that this was exactly what wedding photographers had been dealing with ever since the WPP became a WPP. And that if the WPP couldn\u2019t handle the emergence of the WPPP as the next evolution of a fast-changing industry, maybe it was time for him to move on from the job\u2014and for her to move on from him. And, indeed, just weeks after the WPP\u2019s wife moved out, he quit working entirely. He parked himself on his sofa in front of the TV, where for weeks on end, he did little but watch a show about characters who do nothing but watch other characters on TV. Soon, word of the WPP\u2019s downfall got around, and paparazzi (mostly WPs, a few WPPPs, and even other WPPs with whom the WPP had worked) gathered around the WPP\u2019s windows to snap candid pictures of him. An exhibition of those photos, eventually, appeared at the MOMA. The wedding photographer photographer never attended the show, but he spent many hours online, looking at pictures of museumgoers, who themselves were looking at other museumgoers, who were looking at still further museumgoers, who were looking\u2014from what he could tell\u2014at nothing at all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Matt Leibel The wedding photographer photographer was busier than ever. Couples had decided that typical wedding shots felt too clich\u00e9; they wanted photos that merely suggested the existence of these moments instead. The wedding photographer photographer was acknowledged as the best in the business. He understood how to capture the essence of a wedding […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":8104,"template":"","categories":[9,48,49],"tags":[889,6,143,1947,1948,1908,1949],"class_list":["post-8103","article","type-article","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aquifer","category-fiction","category-literary-features","tag-aquifer","tag-aquifer-the-florida-review-online","tag-fiction","tag-flash-fiction","tag-matt-leibel","tag-short-story","tag-the-wedding-photographer-photographer"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n