PHOTO ESSAY

Buck Shot

The portrait photography of Chris Buck

By Matthew McKinnon

March 21, 2006

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Michelle Golden, 2005.

Last fall, Buck made what he considers his most challenging photograph yet: a portrait of his wife, Michelle Golden. He had tried shooting her a few times before, but they’d disagreed over the results. She shied from giving critical feedback; he worried that he might never get a shot that captured her as he hoped to. One day that changed.

“We were at home [in New York], and I guess the lighting in the apartment was really beautiful. She put her arms up, just stretching. I said, ‘That’s awesome. Hold that.’ I ran and got the camera, set it up and I shot the picture. We shot maybe four or five frames, varying the placement of her arms. And that’s about it. I thought it was very, very cool. [The portrait] has a nice mix of being odd, but it’s really her too.”

It’s also really Buck. Hours later, he posted the photo on his website, on an index that includes portraits of David Cronenberg, Sufjan Stevens and Jonathan Safran Foer. Golden looks every bit as famous as the others. Her husband continues to shoot editorial and commercial portraits, and is currently shopping material for his first book of photography. It’s planned title? More classic Buck: Uneasy.