LEFT: Photography by Laurie Klein

Picture Perfect

Brides have fallen in love with the art of high-fashion wedding imagery, calling upon photographers to capture the style of couture bridal magazines and advertising. As wedding photography has evolved beyond its original documentary roots, so, too, have wedding albums become more than mere vessels for the visual memories of the day.

Today's wedding albums bear little resemblance to the cherished volumes belonging to your grandmother and mother, which typically contained page after matte-black page of similarly sized and posed photos. Modern albums are personalized works of art that combine classic and contemporary pictures and layouts - spontaneous, yet timeless.

When an album is conceived as a one-of-a-kind works of art, each page stands alone; no standard templates are used. Elements of the photographs - a color, a pattern, or a detail shot from the wedding - may be used to create a background on each album page, complementing the images much as a frame enhances a painting. Vibrant digital prints - black and white, color, or black and white with color tones - create a timeless look.

Through the use of custom materials and colors, the album cover serves to tie the whole package together, literally and figuratively.

Joe Buissink of Joe Buissink Photography in Beverly Hills, California, strives to tell a story through the layout of every wedding album he creates.

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Written by Maureen Taylor