BIO:

Joan Buccina is an American photographer and artist based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She resides and works in the St. Croix River Valley, just 30 minutes from the Twin Cities; and on the beaches of Florida's Gulf coast.

For over three decades Joan has worked on photography assignments and commissions. Her client list includes Este Lauder, Aveda, Manhattan Toy, 3M, Hilton, Macy's, and a favorite, the Humane Society.  Barbara Walters on set, Carolina Herrera in her NYC studio, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jesse Ventura in the Governor's office, Kristi Yamaguchi at her cabin home, Kathy Ireland on a runway, Kevin McCale on home court, Train on stage, the neighbor's twin daughters in the backyard, a collie at the Humane Society looking for a home; all are among the pages in her portfolio. Her work has appeared in Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, and Town and Country to name a few.

When not working Joan can still be found with a camera in hand. With her love of travel and the outdoors, she has built a catalog of thousands of images.  You will find a selection for viewing and purchase on her website, www.buccina.com.

Joan prints, transfers, and paints her images onto everything from photographic papers, canvas, glass, and metal, to pieces of driftwood, stone, tile, and shell.

Her photographs, paintings, and mixed media pieces hang in homes and offices around the world.

In Joan's Words:

I first fell in love with light. When I was very young I noticed it, was fascinated by it, and it never stopped.  I remember standing outside, I could not have been more than 10 years old, and being stopped dead in my tracks by the sky. It was a hot summer morning, and the colors were so beautiful, so intense. I began noticing light in every capacity: how dawn's light bounced its pinks and creams and pale blues across a puddle; and at high noon, lying under the elms, hot sunlight turned the leaves transparent. I watched my grandma's deep lines soften at sunset, and was mesmerized how moonlight made everything glow. I found light magical.

Once in school, I became the 'art student.' I took every class offered trying every medium; pencil, charcoal, ink, water color, acrylic, oil, even clay and sculpture.  A still life, a face, a landscape, I was never satisfied with my copy of it; I felt I could never quite make something as beautiful and perfect as what I saw right there in front of me.  I realized then I didn't want to copy --draw-paint-sculpt-etc--  I wanted to capture it; capture what was right there in front of me. Photography was the perfect medium.  I picked up a camera, and never put it down.

Capturing everything in the most beautiful light became my quest; whether a face, a seabird, a city street, or a raindrop.

A quote by photographer Margaret Bourke White says it all,

"A kind of golden hour one remembers for a lifetime... Everything was touched with magic."

I wait for the golden hour; I've spent my life trying to create it in studio, and hunted for it in the world. Whatever my subject is, I try to capture it wrapped in that magical light.

Copyright 2017 Buccina Studios  ~  info@buccina.com