Rangefinder Magazine
July 2005

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Joe Buissink by Larry Singer
Zen and the Art of the Wedding Photojournalist

Portrait of the bride in the limo on the way to the church. “Portraits happen everywhere for me,” says Joe. (Nikon D2H, 17–35mm f/2.8)

First came the extremely popular Zen and the Art of Archery.

Then, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance hit the bookshelves.

In the mid-1970s, photographers got the chance to enjoy the benefits of meditation and contemplation, with the publication of Zen and the Art of Photography.

The concept of mixing Zen and photography has survived because it offers photographers, among other benefits, a way to find the unique in the commonplace.

To find the unique, Zen maintains that one should be awake in, and aware of, each present moment, exactly as it is, rather than through the filter of our ideas and opinions.

It appears to make sense, but is combining age-old Eastern philosophy with photography worth the effort?

And, if you do combine the two, what results can you expect?

For the answer to those questions, consider Beverly Hills photojournalist Joe Buissink.

“What I do,” Buissink says, “can only be described in Zen terms.”

	Joe says, “My fave for the moment is this grab shot in Careyes, Mexico. The bride is descending down a set of stairs between two blue walls on her way to the aisle.” (Nikon D2H, 17–35mm f/2.8 and quick response time)

Zen Terms
Authors Francois Rene Auguste Chateaubriand and Baba Ram Dass not only studied Zen but also helped define it.

“A master in the art of living,” said Chateaubriand, “draws no sharp distinction between his work and his play. He simply pursues his vision of excellence, and leaves others to determine whether he is working or playing. To himself, he always appears to be doing both.” But, explained Baba Ram Dass, “It is important to expect nothing, to take every experience, including the negative ones, as merely steps on the path, and proceed.”

Soothing the Beast
About 10 years ago, while studying to be a neuro-psychologist at UCLA, Joe Buissink discovered the therapeutic ability of photography to reduce stress.

“I started dabbling with photography just for fun,” Buissink says, “by doing landscape stuff. It was just to soothe the savage beast in me that had to study for exams.

“One of my three part-time jobs was at a photo lab, so I learned everything about photography from the back end. I learned to print and process film. I learned how film should be exposed properly by developing the work of all these professional photographers.

“After a while, I decided I’d like to make a living from my photography, but thoughts started flooding through my head about all the starving landscape artists I saw and heard about. I thought, ‘There has to be something else.’”

“I had just been to two weddings,” Buissink recalls, “and I left both saying, ‘I wish I had a camera in my hands.’

“While the photographers that were present were very dedicated and aware of what they had to do, they missed everything going on behind their backs when they were doing the formal shots.

“In the formal poses, candids and traditional photos you typically got back from the photographer, you could see who was present, but not what happened.

“I thought if I were the bride, I would want to know what my wedding day was really all about when I pick that book up in 20 years.”

Fighting Words
Buissink then set out to right this wrong and launched his career in wedding photography.

“I thought I could shoot weddings in a 1950s, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Life magazine style, and everybody laughed at me,” he says. “They thought I was kidding. They thought because I was shooting 35mm in black and white instead of using a Hasselblad, I was crazy.

While the maid of honor was putting on make-up, the bride was attending to the flower girl. “Moments like these are present at all weddings. Being aware of them is a constant challenge,” says Joe. (Nikon D2H, 17–35mm f/2.8).	This image shows a father hugging both sons: groom in the middle, best man on other side. “Emotional moments cannot be choreographed,” says Joe. (Nikon D2H, 70–200mm f/2.8 VR).	This image is a favorite of Joe’s—the bride and groom’s first dance. “It looks like a movie set from the 1940s,” says Joe. (Nikon F6, 70–200mm f/2.8 VR, Kodak TMZ 3200).

“I fight even harder when I’m told I can’t do something. I’m stubborn. That’s just part of my makeup. I’m an Aries.”

Wedding Landscapes
During his first attempt at marketing his services, Buissink reaped the benefits of taking every experience, including the negative ones, as merely steps on the path, and proceeding.

“Someone gave me a six-foot table for 500 bucks,” Buissink explains, “and I went to a bridal show. I figured, ‘This is how I’ll get started.’

“When I got there, I realized I didn’t have any photos. So I sent the guy who was helping me back home to get three of my 30x40-inch landscapes. I put them on easels and stuck them behind my table. I had flyers on the table, and would show them to anyone who walked by.

“I told them, ‘This, too, can be your wedding,’ and I would point to my landscapes.

“Needless to say nobody hired me.

“I’m sure I got a lot of puzzled looks that day, but it made me think about every wedding being a different landscape, and I started to document them in that fashion.”

The Price Was Right
To prove what he could do, Buissink first had to temporarily lower his prices.

“I did two weddings for free,” he says. “I really went out on a limb because these were people I knew. They weren’t quite sure what they were going to get, and they were both a little nervous about it, but they trusted me and my love and passion for what I was doing. They paid for the film and the processing, and that was it.

“From these two weddings I managed to put a portfolio together, rather than a wedding album. I was trying to pitch this notion of creating art. So I made 11x14-inch prints and matted them to 16x20 inches, and I signed them. I was a nobody, but I signed my prints because when people see a signed print, it’s usually considered art. When I showed my 10 to 15 images, signed, matted, and placed in a clam shell box, it caught on.”

Straight to the Top
In fact, it caught on rather quickly.

“Once I got these 10 to 15 images together,” Buissink explains, “I figured I needed to talk to the highest-end wedding coordinator I could find. I discovered a man named Colin Cowie was considered the wedding coordinator to the stars and decided there’s nothing better than going straight to the top.

“I just showed up, and by the third or fourth print he examined, Mr. Cowie told me he was going to have me shoot Kelsey Grammer’s wedding. That was eight years ago.”

Going With the Flow
Since then, Buissink has not searched for pictures; he has waited for moments.

“Some photographers spend their entire career trying to create the perfect picture,” says Buissink, “but it does not exist. What does exist is the perfect moment.

“To capture those moments,” he continues. “I would suggest that one should be in the moment.

“When I go to a wedding, I discard all the baggage I usually carry around with me, emotional and otherwise, and leave it at the door.

“I come in open-minded to this space, and eventually I find the flow of the emotional energy and become a part of these moments.

“The only way I can describe what happens to me is the Zen explanation. It’s a flow. When I find myself in the moment, in this flow or moments between all these people, it feels like a dam, and I move into it.

When the flow stops in about a minute or two, I’m out of it. I don’t force it. I don’t see it anymore, and I stand back and wait for the next moment to flow. It’s an instinctual thing. I respond to that place, and I trust my instincts. I never second-guess myself, nor do I take the time to sit and watch it. It’s like radar. I feel it in my bones, and I move to the feeling.

“I really try not to previsualize. If I did, I would see the same things, week in and week out.
“I’ve also discovered that when I force myself to stop looking for things that normally happen at a wedding, I find other moments.”

No One Said It Was Easy
“I don’t think people realize how physically demanding it is to stay focused that long,” Buissink says.
“I come home sometimes, after a seven-hour gig, and my friends laugh at me and say, ‘Hey, I do that everyday.’ But, to try to focus like that for seven hours in one day exhausts me. In fact, it takes me two days to recover.”

Having to occasionally overcome attacks by the cold and flu, Buissink has discovered another curative power of photography.

“I’ve gone to weddings with 103° fevers because it’s written in the contract that I can’t bring in a substitute to shoot for me,” he explains. “If I wind up in the hospital, someone can take my place. But if I’m not in the hospital, I’ll show up.

“When I get there, for whatever reason, my physical ailments, even a 103° fever, disappear. The adrenaline and the passion take over, and I’m no longer sick.

“The minute I leave the wedding, I collapse. The fever comes back, and I’m wiped out.

“I get hired for my eye and my heart, but not every bride gets what I do. The bride that gets it is crying by the time she sees the second or third picture I show her from former weddings I’ve shot. That’s the bride I like to get.”

A Full Canvas
“My Nikons,” Buissink explains, “are extensions of my hand, my heart and my eyes. I utilize them as a painter would utilize his or her brushes.

“The F6 with the 70–200mm f/2.8 VR on it is my fine brush. Another F6 with the 17–35mm f/2.8 on it is my broad brush. I have another F6 with a 28–70mm f/2.8 on it, which I use as my medium brush.

“My N90s with Kodak Infrared film becomes the brush I use with heart and soul, with clarity. I am lucky as a photographer. The canvas I start with is not empty like a painter’s. I start with a full canvas. I merely look for the parts of the canvas I wish to record.”

Complete Trust
As one who spent three years at UCLA studying psychology, Buissink discovered that understanding both science and philosophy has paid dividends, photographically speaking.

“My training as a psychologist heavily influences how well I can flow through a wedding unobtrusively,”

Buissink says. “I think the bride feels comfortable enough, even when having just a second meeting with me, to open up like a book, with all that she feels, as if I were a family member.

“They know I’m there for them. They know it is absolutely a blessing for me to be there, and an honor, not a job. They could have picked anybody.

“I let them know I am so thankful they selected me as their photographer on the most special day in their lives, and it’s an honor for me to be invited into their lives.

“It isn’t just a marriage between two people, it is actually a coming together of two communities and the amount of emotional and visual content is so incredible. They trust me implicitly. They cry in front of me. They are not aware of me. I become invisible.”

More of Joe Buissink’s work can be seen at www.joebuissink.com/.

Larry Singer is a writer, photographer and teacher living in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He can be reached at larryssinger@yahoo.com.