Rick McGinnis: Chris Buck Photographs Me

My recent subject, and old friend, Rick McGinnis gives his play by play take on our sitting together.

My friend Chris recently interviewed me for The Photographic Journal, but that’s not the part that made me nervous. There’s a sometimes pitiless quality to a Chris Buck photo that I’ve found endlessly intriguing and entertaining – when someone else is the subject. I couldn’t help but wonder just what would happen when he turned his camera on me.

Chris asked me to suggest some locations, and the first one that came to mind was in the neighbourhood where I grew up – Mount Dennis, by what was once the Kodak Canada plant where both our families once worked. I used to come down here in the evenings when I was young, sometimes stoned, sometimes not, and lie on the angled concrete banks encasing Black Creek.

With the light starting to go, we drove back to my house, and set up to shoot in the space between my garage and the wall of my neighbour’s garage, which was covered in nicely weathered wood siding.

For one long series of shots, Chris asked me to bend my arm behind my head and lean back – a position he’d seen me fall into during our long interview a few hours previous. At some point during that series he managed to capture a very flattering shot of me – one that would end up featured on the front page of TPJ site.

Without much of a break, Chris moved me closer to his camera, to where the light wrapped mostly around the back of my head. I was told to face away from the camera and then, when he gave a cue, to turn and look at him. It was a bit of a contortion for a stiff, 54-year-old man, and it didn’t take long until doing it repeatedly became somewhat painful. I had a bit of an insight into how Chris creates his unique portraits, though I knew Barack Obama didn’t have to do this.

We did one final, quick, setup at the front of the house with my family. We’d spent a lot of time during the interview talking about family and its importance to both of us, and who we’ve become as we’ve gotten older. I didn’t imagine it would end up getting used in the story, but I wasn’t going to turn down an opportunity for a Chris Buck family portrait.

Behind the scenes photos by Prachy Mohan and Rick McGinnis. (See the full McGinnis text here.)