Chris Buck's Presence

Chris Buck:  Presence:  David Lynch

I never heard of Chris Buck until I ran across this interview in which he discusses his latest project, a series of celebrity photographs called Presence.  Apparently, Mr Buck is a genuine Hollywood celebrity photographer, which immediately puts him outside the range of my interest, either as a photographer or as a consumer of images.

What makes this particular project noteworthy is the absence of what it claims to present.  The example above, from Buck's website, is a portrait of David Lynch.  According to the interview, it was shot at Lynch's home and in all of the series photographs the subject is somewhere hidden from view.

Buck claims that what made this project of interest to him was its statement about his own celebrity:

But I think it was important for me to do this, in a way, even though obviously I’m very proud of the other work I do, it’s kind of the ultimate statement of…a celebrity photographer…“I’ve got this access and I’m gonna photograph Robert DeNiro, but I’m not gonna show him.” With Russell Brand, who’s the cover, I did him just for the book, so I had never done a proper portrait of him, and I think that’s kind of awesome. It’s an awesome statement of both my arrogance and maybe the arrogance of the subject too, like “I’m such a great photographer that I don’t even have to show the person."

I find it of interest because of what it seems to say about celebrity, about the genuine emptiness at the heart of the cult.  And if we peer just a little deeper, the images are reflections of the viewer, of each and every human being, who at his core has nothing substantial about him or her, no portrait to present to the world.

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