Part 1

50 Cent:

Chris Buck: When we did that shoot with him, he was promoting his new record—I guess he was kinda promoting the movie, too—the movie based on his life. The movie I think had more sensitivities to his vulnerabilities and his background, so I think that was one reason he was open to doing something that was less tough-looking. But also his new single, I think it was actually called “Lollipop” [ed note: “Candy Shop”], so that’s why we suggested this picture, ’cause it was a way to show him being a little more vulnerable, a little more playful, but also it would tie into something of his work, so we knew he’d be kinda cool with it.

I find it a little bit limiting that especially African-American men are shown as being tough and threatening all the time. Obviously they have a whole range of emotions and experiences and I want to show more of that in my work. I find it much more interesting. When I deal with African-American men, I don’t find them threatening. I find them all kinds of things: I find them friendly or vulnerable or curious or whatever—all kinds of emotions and experiences with them, so I want to show that in my work. As an artist, I feel like that’s kind of important.

Chuck D:

Chris Buck: This was taken in 1991. I’d actually photographed Public Enemy twice before that. I was a big fan; I was a pretty obsessed fan when they broke. I had their album Yo! Bum Rush The Show, and then their second album came out which was It Takes a Nation of Millions [to Hold Us Back], which I was so surprised to have the subsequent album to be so much better even than their first album. I was super-excited and I became a totally obsessed fan. In fact, I did a photo session with the band at the time in ’88 when they played in Toronto and it was a super privilege and I was super excited about it. I photographed them a couple of times after and the third time was in Washington, DC and we’re shooting in the hotel room. There was a line about “they crucified me like Jesus” in one of the songs [Ed. note: “Crucifixion ain’t no fiction/ So called chosen frozen/ Apology made to who ever pleases/ Still they got me like Jesus” from “Welcome to the Terrordome,” 1990] and I was like We should go and shoot at the White House. Flavor Flav said, “It should be the Black House!” And Chuck was like, Nah, this actually a good idea. Let’s do this. So we all walked over, the whole group and me. It was only a couple of blocks from where we shooting so we all walked over and we were on, I guess that’s the South Lawn, I’m not sure. We went to shoot there and we shot the whole band first and I say “Chuck, I want to shoot you alone as if you’re being crucified on the fence.” He kinda looked at me and he was like, Okay. He started posing there and he started counting because he was like, I’ll give you 15 seconds. He started counting and as I’m shooting the frames, I had to shoot when his mouth was closed because he was actually counting out loud. It was pretty funny. As we were shooting, I was giving him direction like, Put your head down a little more—’cause obviously I’m trying to make him look like Jesus, how Jesus would have his head down on the cross. I’m giving him more direction like, Raise your left hand a bit. Literally, he counted off 15 seconds and then he was done.

I guess because it was pre-9/11 that probably made it a little easier. People are walking around the White House and taking pictures all the time. As along as you’re not trying to climb the fence or break the security zone, I think you’re totally fine. The police might have come by, but I think there’s an aspect of free speech that even the police understand—you’re allowed to make a statement and they’re okay with that.

I went home and I had to print it really, really carefully because I had to burn down the background a lot to get the rich tones to match the tones on him and everything. And the funny thing is that he was kind of giving me a hard time when we were shooting it but he loved it and he actually used this picture on the back cover of his biography so I was really pleased that he liked it. And I was really proud of it. Often times people take pictures of hip-hop artists that are just very straight forward but I like to do something that a little more conceptual and obviously I like it to be appropriate and I thought this really was in terms of the politics of Public Enemy and what they’re all about. I was really excited that he kinda felt that I understood what they’re doing.

I tell the story of how impatient he was, but the fact is they’re actually very respectful and they’re really a lot of fun to work with. The irony is the person who was the most fun and most relaxed to shoot with was Professor Griff—and he was course the one that got into all that trouble. The first time I shot them was before they got into trouble for the anti-semitic comments. He was actually the most relaxed guy and it’s unfortunate he had to be pushed out of the band. I think they were quite right to push him out of the band. I’m a great friend to Jewish people so I think he really misspoke in that sense. But it’s a shame because I think maybe he didn’t know enough about that stuff—you know Jewish people have often been very friendly to Blacks and Civil Rights, so it’s kind of a shame he didn’t know more about that. There was a full story about the Jews and Black people but anyway he was a very nice guy and I was saddened when he had to be kick out of the band. Obviously these things are very complex.

But Public Enemy were very cool to deal with and I shot them many times because I was such a fan. I really enjoy working with hip-hop artists in general because they of course, I’m fan of them music and the culture, but also I also think that more than rock musicians they understand the show business aspect of having your picture taken. Rock bands often will just show up just regular clothes and just stand there, whereas hip-hop artists—not all of them but oftentimes they understand that there’s an as aspect to, as Frank Sinatra said, “You’re not just an artist, you’re also a star.” I think that hip-hop artists understand that aspect.

Nas:

Chris Buck: Shooting with Nas was definitely a little challenging. He’s a very nice guy but him and I just thought differently about how we would do things. One of the things I like in pictures is vulnerability. For me I wanted show vulnerability with him, and this picture I feel shows it, but most pictures we had didn’t really have that. The fact is he worked with me and we got great shots. I’m very proud of this picture. It’s interesting because the “N” is supposed to represent the name of his album that he was putting out, but what’s nice is it also represents his name, so it has that kind of longevity that can go beyond that particular album.

If you don’t mind me saying so, I actually had a problem with him naming the album that. Obviously I believe in free speech, and I believe in genuine intellectual discussion, but when I read different interviews with him, he said different things about his reasons for calling it that in every interview. If you’re gonna use a word like that that has such historical complexity, I think that you have to have clarity about why you’re doing it. In the end, I got the impression that he was using it for reasons that were provocative in the commercial sense rather than in the intellectual sense. And I’m disappointed because he’s obviously a smart guy and I actually enjoy his music. I love his song “Black Republican”—I think it’s an awesome song. I’m more politically conservative myself so i think it was cool he did a song called “Black Republican,” but I was disappointed that he couldn’t really justify why he was using that word. Even when he did the Hip-Hop is Dead stuff, that again was a very interesting concept, but in a similar way,  in the end, he couldn’t really talk about it in ways that were that interesting.

I like to leave [the chain] open-ended. You can take it for what you want. Because it was supposed to be connected to the word “nigger,” I think that’s where I was thinking of it, like the idea of the burden of the history, which I do think is legitimate. I think that’s one of the great reasons, even though I don’t particularly support Barack Obama’s policies, I do think there’s a value of having an African-American President, because if it can help to ease some of the historical pain of slavery. As a Canadian, I come into the United States and I see that the history of slavery is something that’s not really talked about [and] race in general. Obviously it’s changed since Barack Obama came on the scene but race in general really wasn’t talked about much and I thought it was kind of a shame. Certainly the history of slavery wasn’t talked about and I think that’s one of the reasons why Black people felt like racism was still a very strong element of the culture. I think the election of Barack Obama showed that racism isn’t as powerful—I’m trying to get the right word—isn’t as overwhelming in the culture as people assumed it was. Obviously he was mostly voted for by white people or he wouldn’t become President otherwise. But I do think the lack of discussion on slavery is something that is a problem. There’s more discussion on the Jewish Holocaust in the country than there is on slavery. I think the reason why is the Jewish Holocaust was perpetrated by Europeans, not by Americans. It’s much harder for Americans to talk about something that they did. I don’t know if you want to get in this kind of political discussion. I’m sorry, I just find this stuff interesting.

In the context of the story, that’s what it was in my mind: the burden of the history of African-Americans in slavery. In the larger context I don’t mind it being ambiguous. Maybe it’s the persona of Nas on Nas, maybe holding him down or being a burden on him.

Missy Elliott:

Chris Buck: I had this idea for a long time—and Missy Elliott, for some reason, I guess because of her interesting kind of futuristic ideas and concepts, I thought she might be into this—to take someone and put silver makeup on them. What we did was we put silver make up on her and then we photographed her in black & white so that the silver aspect is very subtle. It gives a certain feel to her skin and to the texture in the picture but because it’s in black & white it’s not that obvious. It’s not like you’re seeing a colored background or her eyebrows are different color or something like that. When the magazine ran it, it was super cool.They ran it with silver ink, silver and black. You can’t see that here, but it was really cool when we did it.

She had her own makeup artist and he was really into it; he was the one that did the bejeweling on her eyebrows and stuff. She loved it, she was super into it. The crazy part about that shoot was we did at a restaurant in New York just because we wanted a certain background, and the guy at the restaurant who I got the permission from didn’t get permission from his boss, so halfway through the shoot, the boss came in and freaked out a totally made a huge scene and kicked us out. Missy was very cool and we just looked at each other and kinda laughed and we’re like “let’s just wrap this up now.” It was very funny. It’s one my favorite stories about a shoot because of the chaos that happened. Everyone on the set was very cool but it was just kinda funny because we ended up being thrown out of the place halfway through the shoot.

PREVIOUSLY: Chris Buck x RESPECT. Mag | Part 1

The post Chris Buck x RESPECT. Mag | Part 2: 50 Cent, Chuck D, Nas + Missy Elliott appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

Chris Buck, who, amongst other things, snapped the photo adorning the front cover our latest issue, was actually featured in our second issue. During our time with him, we found Chris to be incredibly insightful and courteous. And we have no good excuse for not having put up our interview with him sooner. Please forgive us.

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How did you get into photography? What was it about photography that excited you?

I was just very interested in popular culture in general and music in particular, and photography is something that was just around. My father worked for Kodak, so it was something around that I was aware of.  And when I did start doing it, I seemed to have some sort of aptitude for it, so it became my way to connect to popular culture.

What did your dad do for Kodak?

He was like a manager; I don’t know. You know how it is with fathers—they kind of change, shift around positions a little bit. Actually funny, at one point, I worked there as a summer job and he was in charge of a building. It was film coding—he was in charge to the film coding building and I was the lowest person in the film coding building. So while he was the boss of the building and the manager of it, I was the guy cleaning the toilets. To be fair, I could get respect because my father was the boss and everyone knew that. I had the night job, cleaning the cafeteria and the toilets.

Did you interact with a lot a photographers at that time were you like, It’s a job to put money in my pockets?

That was a job. I was working. I didn’t really intern with photographers or assist so much. People do that sometimes and it could be a great way to learn, but it’s not something I had a chance to do. Once I got out of school and got a little more ambitious, I made a point of contacting photographers in Toronto and  picking their brains. I wasn’t shy about asking questions about the business and how to run a business and such and how to deal with celebrities or magazines. And then immigration became an issue because I wanted to move to the States.

Did you have any formal training?

Yes. I went to school for photography. Going to school for photography is a little absurd—it’s essentially a basic craft: you learn it and then you get out and start taking pictures.

How long did you go to school for?

Amazingly, it’s a four-year program. Four years of learning how to test exposure and take a decent print. I went straight from high school to college. I finished college when I was 23 and I moved to New York when I was 26.

How did you come to New York? Was it like: I’m coming with my camera and my roll of film and I’m going to make it? Was that your attitude?

It’s a little more complex than that. The way it actually happened was that I had just finished school and a friend of mine had decide to take a trip top New York and San Francisco, just as a fun post-grauduation trip. Really, we only went there because that’s where we knew people we could stay with for free—the classic kind of college approach. I had made a portfolio in college, so I brought it with me to New York  and I showed it around to music magazines like Spin and Rolling Stone. I also went to Esquire ad Vanity Fair, all the big magazines. I got a very nice response and I was quite surprised at how friendly and welcoming people were considering I was basically just a photo student from a foreign country. But everyone was very welcoming. Then when I went back to Canada—I really hadn’t shown my work yet—I decided to do the same thing. After the warm response I got in New York, I actually found it very difficult [in Canada]. The doors were largely closed and the attitude was Come to us when you have something of substance to show us. Since I was just out of school, I only had a relatively modest portfolio. It was very disconcerting and I realized New York was just a much more welcoming place to be an artist, so I began to make my plan come here.

One thing I did that I think served me very well, was that I worked for a music paper in Toronto that was very modest but it gave me a chance to do some professional assignments. It gave me a kind of creative fulfillment but also gave me some professional experience. So once I did d try to seek bigger magazines out in the world, I wasn’t totally intimidated. That was very important.

A lot of the photos you take are highly conceptualized?  What is your process like?

The first thing I do, if  I don’t know their work very well, is try to get to know them as much as I can through interviews with them, any video footage I can find, just anything so I can immerse myself in who they are and what they do and what they’re about. It definitely helps me a lot to not always just to know what concept I want to do, but also to know what I would not want to do. I think oftentimes you might see pictures of one of your favorites artists and you think that’s kind of not really appropriate for them. Not that it would be offensive, just it would seems silly or not quite right for them. I think my pictures, even if they are conceptual, they’re pretty appropriate to who the person is and what they’re about. I make a point of learning who they are and what they’re about so the picture will have some relationship to who they are and their history. That’s very important to me. It also helps when I’m actually working with them because I might know things to talk about with them that they might have an interest in, or  if we have some person in common or some history in common that I could bring up and we can make a bond in some way.

It’s funny that you say the photos are appropriate. They are appropriate, but they don’t seem to be what you would expect.

How are they not what you would expect?

I’m looking specifically at this 50 Cent one where he has the lollipop in his mouth. Usually with him it’s this scowling, mean…

Right. I think that for most artists, the photographers, you want to do something that usually isn’t seen. Maybe for some people it’s taking 50 Cent’s threatening tough guy quality to a new level of awesomeness. But for me it’s usually trying to do something that you don’t usually see them doing, but that’s still appropriate. 50 Cent is a pretty soft spoken, kind of friendly guy. He definitely has his standards and there’s things he cares about; he has his priorities. But he’s not rude or anything. In a professional setting, he’s not going to be threatening to people he’s working with. He’s tough, but when you deal with him, it’s not like he comes in being physically threatening or anything like that. He’s a professional person. When we did the shoot with him… Do you mind if I talk about that shoot in particular?

Not at all. Go ahead…

Continued in Part 2…

The post Chris Buck x RESPECT. Mag | Part 1 appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

On sale now. Photograph by Chris Buck.

The post Volume 1, Issue 3 appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

We’re big fans of Chris Buck’s work over here. And his “Isn’t” series of photos is one of our favorite things that isn’t what it seems. The good folks at Bit Rebels seem to agree so much that they did a quick but insightful post on it, complete with some photos we’ve never quite figured out how to grab off of Buck’s site.

After the jump: Chris Buck video interview from Bravo! Arts & Minds.

The post Chris Buck: Isn’t appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

RESPECT. contributor Chris Buck does great, thoughtful interviews. (You can get an ample supply of his insight by going to his site and clicking the little iron icon.) Chris’ work is quirky, just a hair shy of silly, dancing between the mundane and transcendent. Over at Heather Morton he talks about his approach to Diesel’s “Be Stupid” campaign. As always, he’s extremely practical and professional. Which is not quite what you’d expect from a guy who takes a picture of Andy Samberg high-fiving some sort of cat.

(vi@ The Reference Council)

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The post Chris Buck Goes Diesel appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.