On View May 12 - June 20, 2026 / ATTEND THE RECEPTION: May 23, 12-2pm
Kristyn Buffa (Langstrand) is a proud South Shore Long Island girl. A Lindenhurst resident for over 30 years, Kristyn’s first experience with photography came in the form of her grandfather’s OneStep Polaroid at four years old, used on fishing adventures and day trips to the Long Island Game Farm.
In high school, Kristyn took photography at St. John the Baptist. One of only two high schools at the time that still had a functioning darkroom, Kristyn’s love of analog film was nurtured by her father (who gifted her his 1978 Minolta) and her teacher, Kathleen Burns. Encouraged further by her mother who purchased her first Nikon, Kristyn set out to capture as many different moments and people as possible.
After starting her own portrait photography business she went on to become a published photographer, most notably for her Halloween themed “BOO-doir” sessions which had clients in attendance from four different states. She also volunteered with the organization “Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep” for several years, offering intimate sessions with families experiencing the loss of their infants.
Kristyn met her husband, Andrew, when she was hired to photograph his best friend’s wedding. You could say photography has been incredibly good to Kristyn.
The series of photographs on display, affectionately referred to as “The Five-Second Rule” is something Kristyn has been working on for nearly half a decade. If you ask her, she’ll tell you what the photographs mean to her, but if she’s being honest, she prefers hearing what the photographs mean to YOU.
“The five-second rule is a food hygiene urban legend that states a defined time window after which it is not safe to eat food (or sometimes to use cutlery) after it has been dropped on the floor or on the ground and thus exposed to contamination.”
