By Michael Motes

"We're in a happy business because the people we meet are happy when they come to us. They look and feel their best and that is the way we portray them," says Van Buren Colley, nationally recognized as one of the country's top photographers and the unquestionable dean of Atlanta's professional shutterbugs.

With the exception of one week of professional training, Colley is self-taught in his art. This year marks his fortieth anniversary as a professional photographer, portrait artist and restorer of old photographs.

In 1938, the native Georgian sold his first photographs, those of the children of a friend. At the time, and for several years thereafter, Colley was an employee of the Atlanta Post Office. He worked at the post office during the day, "moonlighting" as a photographer during the evening hours.

His position at the post office is responsible for his life being saved at the beginning of World War II. Serving in the Naval Reserves, Colley was aboard the ship Reuben James. His vessel and two others were off the coast of Norfolk, Virginia, when they were radioed to sail to Savannah.

Because of his position as a government employee at the Atlanta Post Office, Colley was classified as "Strategic Manpower" and released from his Navy duties. He was the only person aboard the Reuben James to receive such a classification. Enroute to Newfoundland to serve as a guide ship, the Reuben James struck an iceberg and sank. All aboard perished in the sea.

In 1946, Colley opened the studio he has occupied ever since in a charming old house on Tenth Street in Atlanta. Still not financially established in his new field, he continued to work at the post office for several more years, reversing his former hours by serving Uncle Sam at night and photographing clients during the day.

"Those were tiring years," he recalls. "I would get off work at the post office at 3 a.m., sleep from 4 to 8 and then open the studio."

The excellence of his work gained Colley an outstanding reputation and he finally became a full-time photographer. Today, he has more than 25 National Merit Awards from the Professional Photographers of America Association.

Over the years, Colley has photographed so many ordinations of Atlanta priests that he has lost count, but knows that he covered at least 100. His favorite type of photography is the individual portrait.

"I like to photograph people because they are so interesting. They come to us looking and feeling their best and it's my job to depict them this way," he says.

If a client is unhappy with Colley's work, a photography session is rescheduled.

"My goal is to please the client, and I keep at it until he or she is pleased," he says. "Often people see themselves differently than they actually are."

Colley says that "maybe one in a thousand" clients is never pleased and adds, "even the Lord couldn't please everyone!"

Among the more interesting photo assignments he remembers was coverage of all the festivities of the world premier of "Gone With the Wind" in Atlanta in 1939. One unusual wedding he photographed took place at 6:30 in the morning atop a mountain, which he had to climb loaded down with cameras and equipment.

But the wedding he best remembers was scheduled at Sacred Heart. Colley had already shot five rolls of film as the time approached for the bride to walk down the aisle. She suddenly announced that she had changed her mind. Colley motioned for the priest who was to perform the ceremony and informed him of the bride's decision.

"The priest took it in stride and calmly announced that the wedding had been cancelled but that the reception was still planned!"

He is now photographing the second generation of weddings of his thousands of clients. In addition to Atlanta, he travels from Washington, DC to Miami to cover the weddings of children of former clients. An assignment he recently enjoyed was the 25^th anniversary reception of a couple whose wedding he had originally photographed.

Reared in a Baptist family, Colley decided to become a Methodist minister and studied for the ministry at Young Harris College. A meeting and friendship with the late Joe Kielly family in Atlanta introduced him to Catholicism and he was baptized into the Church in 1925.

For over 40 years he was an active parishioner of the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception before recently purchasing a new home and moving to Douglasville, where he attends St. John Vianney.

Another interesting talent the photographer possesses is his writing ability. He became the author of a history of the Shrine quite by accident.

When the late Monsignor James Grady was appointed rector of the Shrine in 1951, the stately old building was in great need of renovation.

Colley volunteered to help Monsignor Grady and his young assistant, then "Father" Donald Kiernan, with a fund-raising project to renovate the Shrine. A brochure depicting the shabby appearance was assembled, with Colley photographing the interior of the church in great detail. The brochure was mailed to numerous present and past parishioners.

"The response to our plea for donations was tremendous," Colley remembers. "A goal of $75,000 had been set for restoration, but we raised over $100,000."

After the complete renovation of the building, Monsignor Grady approached Colley for additional help. He told the photographer that the Shrine looked so good that a detailed history of it should be written.

Hundreds of hours of research at the Atlanta Historical Society, the Georgia Department of Archives and History and through the Atlanta Journal and Constitution microfilm collections resulted in the publication 1954 of Colley's History of the Diocesan Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, which remains to this day one of the very few major publications history of the Catholic Church in Atlanta.

In addition to this contribution to the Shrine, Colley has been an active member of the Holy Name Society, holding all offices over the years. He has written regular columns for the society's Bulletin since 1946 and is currently involved in trying to find back issues of the publication to be bound. (If any Bulletin readers have back issues, Colley would welcome them for this collection. He may be telephoned at 892-6620.)

Colley views his profession in the same manner any artist would.

"You can study photography, but you can't be taught to be a photographer," he says. "I study the Old Masters such as Rembrandt, Goya and Renoir and try to do what they did -- capture a perfect image. Every photograph must have esthetic value and must follow the rules of composition that have been used from the time of Michelangelo to the present."

Just how many photographs has this Catholic photographer made during career?

"I have no idea," he says. "I know that we have on file over one billion negatives."

When away from his studio, Colley enjoys working in the garden of his new home, listening to music and "piddling" with electronics. He also enjoys his private art collection of paintings dating back to the 18^th Century.

But Colley laughs about "spare time," saying that he has none. It's not unusual to find him covering four wedding in one day or seeing 20 people in his studio. He averages photographing 10,000 persons a year, including large scenes at weddings and parties, and that's a lot of "happy" people!