John Dolan

This is an expanded edition of photographer John Dolan’s potent 2021 exploration of the American wedding, The Perfect Imperfect. This new edition includes photographs of Gwyneth Paltrow, AnnaSophia Robb and the White House wedding of Naomi Biden. Dolan has quietly pursued emotional and revealing art inside the wedding day itself. He has aimed his camera at tiny moments of deep meaning: evocative, joyful, unscripted, perfectly imperfect scenes at the start of a marriage. The wedding is one of society’s last and lasting ceremonies—universal in its presence, comprehensive in its emotion. Dolan’s candor, his respectful discretion and his gentle but shrewd and powerful observation combine to make a book that transcends weddings and enlightens us on the human condition.
John Dolan (born 1962) has influenced a generation of contemporary wedding photographers, redefining the genre over 30 years of work. He is an artist who chose weddings as his subject, fascinated by the complexity of this shared ritual. His work has been widely published and celebrated in major magazines and sought after by a variety of thoughtful clients from Martha Stewart to Jerry Seinfeld.

This book is an unexpected deep dive into the tenderness and truth of weddings. For 342 Saturdays, John Dolan has quietly pursued emotional and revealing art inside the wedding day itself. He has aimed his camera at tiny moments of deep meaning: evocative, joyful, unscripted, perfectly imperfect scenes at the start of a marriage. The wedding is one of society's last and lasting ceremonies—universal in its presence, comprehensive in its emotion. Dolan's candor, his respectful discretion and his gentle but shrewd and powerful observation combine to make a book that transcends weddings and enlightens us on the human condition.
Dolan has influenced a generation of contemporary wedding photographers, redefining the genre over 30 years of work. He is an artist who chose weddings as his subject, fascinated by the complexity of this shared ritual. His work has been widely published and celebrated in major magazines and sought after by a variety of thoughtful clients from Johnny Cash to Gwyneth Paltrow. Dolan is based in New York, the Berkshires and Ireland, or wherever his next wedding takes him, finding beauty and truth below the surface of the occasion.