PHOTO ESSAY

Buck Shot

The portrait photography of Chris Buck

By Matthew McKinnon

March 21, 2006

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Gene Simmons, Tracks, 2004.

Early in his career, Buck photographed a personal hero, Nick Cave. Buck is reluctant to say why, but the experience taught him an important lesson: to make no effort to have his subjects like him. He learned that the urge to become chummy, to seek a celebrity’s approval, could instead invite disdain and loathing. Ever since, he has focused only on making strong photographs. If his subjects respect him for that effort, good. If they don’t, he’s not bothered.

Buck had already photographed Gene Simmons twice before making this portrait in 2004. He remembered the KISS bassist as a difficult subject. Simmons was controlling and deliberate; he chafed at overt instruction. Their last time around, he had spent an hour detailing what Buck could and could not shoot.

“I’d learned from working with him that the less I said to him, the more I would get out of him,” Buck says. “I dealt with him being a contrarian the whole time, but then I got to show him that I can be a contrarian too.” With conversation at a minimum, he coaxed Simmons towards the pose that he had in mind. “He’s anti-organized religion. I like that it looks like he’s praying, Muslim-style. I think it’s funny that it looks like he’s about to get down on a prayer mat.”