About

Harold “Buddy” Jenssen is a photographer whose work is rooted in a lifelong connection to the natural world. His interest in photography and conservation began early, when his father, a college professor with summers free, took the family on a six-week camping trip across the United States. Traveling through National and State Parks left a lasting impression. With a Kodak black-and-white camera in hand, Buddy began making photographs and developing the deep respect for wild places that continues to guide his work today.

Over the years, Buddy has photographed wildlife, landscapes, birds, marine life, and environmental subjects across North America, Africa, the Caribbean, India, Iceland, and Canada. His camera has taken him from the parks and wetlands of northern New Jersey, including the Celery Farm, to African wildlife preserves near Mount Kilimanjaro, tiger habitats in India, and northern skies illuminated by the aurora borealis.

A longtime scuba diver, Buddy has also built a substantial body of underwater photography in and around Bonaire, where he maintains a second home. His sea images reflect the same patience and attentiveness found in his land-based wildlife work: an interest not only in the beauty of the subject, but in the fragile habitats that make such encounters possible.

Before developing his own photographic practice, Buddy worked in New York City assisting studio photographers, gaining experience with the discipline, craft, and technical demands of professional image-making. His own work has since expanded beyond traditional wildlife and nature photography into more experimental approaches, including infrared digital imaging, video, and sound-based nocturnal studies. Among his most unusual projects are night images made at Gettysburg National Military Park, where he uses alternative sensors and the science of light to create photographs that move between documentation, atmosphere, and art.

Buddy’s photography is inseparable from his environmental commitments. Since joining the Sierra Club in his twenties, he has remained active in causes and organizations dedicated to conservation, preservation, and public awareness. That sense of civic responsibility also informs his recent documentary work at marches, rallies, bridge protests, and demonstrations in New York and New Jersey, including protests connected to immigration enforcement and broader resistance movements.

Whether photographing a reef, a bird in a local preserve, a tiger in India, or people gathering in public protest, Buddy approaches his subjects with patience, respect, and curiosity. His photographs reflect a life spent looking closely at the world—and a belief that seeing clearly is one way of caring deeply.