AT A GLANCE
- Known for
- Candid, emotional wedding photographs in a photojournalistic style; weddings of celebrities such as Jennifer Lopez, Christina Aguilera and Hilary Swank
- Works in
- Color and black and white; 35mm film and digital
- Camera
- Canon EOS 5D Mark II and Mark III; Canon EOS-1V for film
- Also
- Canon Explorer of Light (2006); WPPI Lifetime Achievement Award (2013); co-author of Wedding Photography from the Heart
- Start with
- Wedding Photography from the Heart (Amphoto Books, 2009)
Joe Buissink (born around 1950) is an American wedding photographer based in Los Angeles. He is known for candid, emotional pictures made in a photojournalistic style, and for the weddings of many famous couples. He started his professional career in 1995, when he was about 45.
The story
One day Joe Buissink came home and saw his young son nursing on his wife. A small camera lay on the table in the hallway. He grabbed it without thinking and took one picture. The next day he printed it at the photo lab where he worked. “I printed it and the image shook me right to the core,” he said.
At that time he was in his forties and studying psychology. He had grown up in Indonesia and the Netherlands and came to Los Angeles as a boy. After many different jobs, he went back to school in 1989 and graduated from Cal State Northridge in 1993. He planned to become a clinical psychologist. But the photo changed that. He left his doctoral studies to find out why one picture could speak to him so strongly.
A few months later he went to two friends’ weddings. The hired photographers spent hours on formal group pictures, while the real story of the day went on around them. “I wish I had a camera in my hand,” he kept saying to himself.
He was 45, so there was no time for years of assisting. Instead he printed ten black and white pictures, matted and signed each one, and took them to the front door of a celebrity wedding planner. The visit brought him the wedding of Kelsey Grammer. “Part of it is luck, right? But if you don’t put yourself in the way of luck, it won’t hit you,” he said.
Around the same time, Annie Leibovitz hired him for her sister’s wedding. On the dance floor she heard his slow shutter and told him, “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” His answer was simple: “That’s how I shoot!” The next year she hired him again, for a cousin’s wedding in New York.
Many famous couples followed, among them Jennifer Lopez, Christina Aguilera and Hilary Swank. In 2007 American Photo named him one of the ten best wedding photographers in the world. Still, his way of working stayed close to that first picture. While a second photographer takes care of the group shots, he stays in the background with a long lens and waits for what happens between people.
It all goes back to a quiet moment in a hallway. “There’s no such thing as a perfect image, only a perfect moment,” he once wrote.
The work
- 1950Born around this year; grows up in Indonesia and the Netherlands, then Los Angeles
- 1989Goes back to school to study psychology
- 1993Graduates in psychology from Cal State Northridge, magna cum laude
- 1995Starts his professional career as a wedding photographer
- 2001Photographs the wedding of Jennifer Lopez and Cris Judd in Calabasas
- 2006Joins Canon’s Explorers of Light
- 2007American Photo names him one of the world’s top ten wedding photographers
- 2009Publishes Wedding Photography from the Heart with Skip Cohen
- 2013Receives the WPPI Lifetime Achievement Award
Lessons
It is never too late. He started at 45 with a portfolio of ten prints, and went straight to the clients he wanted.
Shoot for yourself. He shows only his favorite pictures, so the couples who book him want the same kind of photographs he loves to make.
Get to know people first. He uses engagement sessions to meet couples before the wedding, so on the day they relax in front of him.
Try this: at your next family event, skip the group photos. Stand at the edge of the room with a longer lens and wait for one real moment between two people. Keep only one frame.
Gear
Buissink is a Canon Explorer of Light and has talked about his gear in interviews. He began with 35mm cameras at a time when many wedding photographers used medium format.
Canon EOS 5D Mark II: his main camera in 2011. He carried several bodies with different lenses. Canon later listed the 5D Mark III as his camera.
Canon EOS-1V: the 35mm film camera he used when shooting film.
Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 lens: one of his favorite lenses, for working quietly from the background.
Canon 24-70mm f/2.8 lens: his main lens on the dance floor.
He has also named the 85mm f/1.2, the 50mm f/1.2 and the 14mm f/2.8 wide angle, which he said he adores.
Books
Wedding Photography from the Heart: Creative Techniques to Capture the Moments that Matter (Amphoto Books, 2009). Written with Skip Cohen, with a foreword by wedding photographer Denis Reggie. The book has about 192 pages and more than 150 of his photographs, many from celebrity weddings. Next to the pictures he explains how they were made, for example how to look beyond the subject into shadows and light, and how to work in low light. A large part of the book is about learning to see and anticipate moments, and about building trust with the couple. It is written for professional and aspiring wedding photographers, and also for couples looking for ideas.
The Wedding Box (Rizzoli, 2000). Text by Rebecca Buffum Taylor, black and white photographs by Joe Buissink. It is a gift set in a keepsake box: a large illustrated book about marriage, a wedding planner, a guest book, and twelve note cards with envelopes. Made for couples rather than photographers, it shows his early black and white wedding work from the first years of his career.
I Do: Achieving Your Dream Wedding (2003). A book by singer Jessica Simpson, with photographs by Buissink, who photographed her wedding to Nick Lachey. She shares memories and advice on planning a wedding that fits the couple, from showers to choosing a photographer. A light book for couples and fans, and a chance to see his celebrity wedding work in print.
