Uneasy by Chris Buck

Chris Buck is a portrait photographer whose work does something most portraits cannot, placing iconic subjects in situations that are unconventional, disarming, and often surreal, revealing what direct exposure never would. Uneasy, published by Norman Stuart Publishing in February 2017 with a foreword by Sheila Heti, is a 384-page, 338-photograph collection of his portraits from 1986 to 2016, a road map of contemporary culture spanning Barack Obama, Jay-Z, Margaret Atwood, Lena Dunham, Will Smith, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Donald Trump, Cindy Sherman, Steve Martin, and Willie Nelson, among many others. The book was covered by GQ, CNN, The Guardian, and People Magazine, and GQ called it a must for anyone into portrait photography, describing Buck as a photographer whose images leave you “awestruck, scratching your head, or wondering why anyone would agree to pose like that.”

A body of work this singular demanded a book design to match. de.MO designed the book, celebrity photography book design built around a large 9.5 x 13 inch format with generous negative space to focus the reader’s eye on the details within each portrait. The cover unfolds to a poster-size version of the cover photograph, Joaquin Phoenix, with the reverse side featuring interviews with Buck. The Stories section, spanning over a hundred behind-the-scenes anecdotes by the photographer, was designed to sit in harmony with the photographic essays throughout.