CHRIS BUCK — BOOKS

GENTLEMEN’S PARTNERS OF EXOTIC DANCERS (SPRING 2021)

Known for his uneasy portraits of celebrities, Chris Buck was looking for a subject that continued his exploration of strength and vulnerability, and found it in the partners of exotic dancers. The result is Buck’s most surprising and compelling work: forty interviews and photo sittings across with people in committed relationships with strip club dancers.

Author and former dancer Lily Burana has written the foreword to Gentlemen’s Club.

DETAILS By turns raffish, gallant, sly and touchingly vulnerable, this is a wonderful band of gentlemen—even if some of them aren’t, strictly speaking, men—and this book is a Photographer/Author: Chris Buck reminder of basic humanity in a seemingly

inhuman time. Foreword: Lily Burana — Mary Gaitskill, author of This is Pleasure Design: Alex Camlin

Format: Hardcover 7.625 x 10.25 inches Chris Buck’s pictures give us strange attractors, weaknesses in human psychic energy fields, blocked 90 color photographs emotions, yearnings for radicality, the normalcy of sexual fantasies, need, the of desire, and 256 pages, 40 interviews efflorescent tattered love.

Publisher: Norman Stuart Publishing — Jerry Saltz, Pulitzer Prize winning art critic, Magazine Release Date: Spring 2021 Chris Buck has taken a widely photographed subject and made it wholly his own. His interviews with dancers’ partners are incisive and powerful, but it is his accompanying photographs that reveal this world in all of its gorgeous complexity: darkness and levity, uncertainty and hope, bravado and vulnerability.

— Karen Abbott, New York Times bestselling author of The Ghosts of Eden Park

GENTLEMEN’S CLUB CHRIS BUCK FOREWORD by Lily Burana

The private life of a is one of the enduring mysteries in the public consciousness. While the cultural investment in seeing only at surface level is part of the reason for this, it is also because strippers instinctively know the risk of oversharing.

The less customers know about you, the less likely they are to, say, show up in your neighborhood looking for you, or comb the internet for additional personal details that may cause you embarrassment. There is the risk of exposure, or actual danger. Also, being circumspect about one’s personal life is just good business.

Strippers are professional fantasy fodder, scrims upon which customers project their wishes and their whims. Knowing, for instance, that you have a hardworking girlfriend or husband at home waiting for you may harsh the customer’s buzz and cut into your moneymaking potential. Figuring out the line between what’s public and what’s private is one of stripping’s great challenges.

Stripper partnerships are complicated by factors that often remain unspoken: the intense emotional and physical labor of the dancer’s job, and profound social stigma. It would be lovely if the job were such a lark that a dancer came home from every shift elated, turned on, and feeling carefree; the world of neon and sweaty spandex just melting away as she flings herself into her partner’s arms. Yes, there are good nights where the job seems almost too easy but mostly, it’s a grind, a race home to dump the tips out of the bag, change into sweats, scrape off your makeup, and talk shit about your cheap customers and the klepto dancer who keeps trying to steal your thigh-highs. A dancer’s personal space is constantly invaded at work, and that leaves her emotionally drained after a particularly trying day. She craves quiet, and perhaps needs to insulate herself. That has an impact on a couple.

Still, love is love, and it manages to soften our hearts and stoke our hopes of finding someone with whom to share this crazy, unpredictable life. Even the most steely-eyed dancer longs for a soft place to fall. But finding a relationship is not as easy as wanting one. I need someone to accept every facet of who I am, at home, at work, and in the eyes of a judgmental society. Who has the welcoming heart and tough hide to meet those requirements? When she finds a special someone (or a few special someones), how do they shape their lives together?

Another one of the great challenges of stripping, or having been a stripper, is the overwhelming number of men who believe they are entitled to your time (to say nothing of your energy and emotional resources). I guarantee you, the last email I am likely to respond to positively is a cold pitch from a man who thinks he is a photographer, seeking help with a book about strippers. Men (and women) who are outside the business and think the demimonde of stripping would make an exotic subject for an art project are a dime a dozen. I’m rolling my eyes just thinking about it. Spare me your walk on the wild side, normie.

But Chris Buck was different.

Chris’s email to me was neither fawning nor creepy. No hubris or hard sell. Just a basic introduction, saying he was at work on this project, and would I consider helping out with a foreword? He included a link to his other photographic work, and rather than hitting the “delete” button, I clicked the link instead. “My God,” I thought. “This guy is good.” I was impressed, but still unconvinced. I agreed to meet him in person at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

GENTLEMEN’S CLUB CHRIS BUCK I waited, silently chanting, “Please don’t be a weirdo. Please don’t be a weirdo.” Minutes later, he came galumphing through the lobby, weaving his way through clusters of tourists, his messenger bag slung across his body. We headed to the outdoor sculpture garden, where I sat on the steps and flipped through his portfolio of the work in progress. If the photos grabbed me, the words sold me. I was hooked. I’ve seen many books about stripping— from old-time documentary photos taken backstage in and burlesque theaters to more recent autobiographical documentary works by strippers, lap dancers and girls like Cammi Toloui, Erika Langley, and Juliana Beasley. Here, I was seeing something different, his lens turned not toward the workers themselves, but to the partners with whom they’ve chosen to create their domestic lives. Their extant emotional homes. Their hearts.

What I loved, beyond the surprising scope of his photographic skill, was his obvious commitment to diversity, to letting strippers and their partners shape their own stories. He showed not just a wide range of relationship types, but also a broad emotional range—from the tender to the downright goofy to the bashful to the besotted and proud. I felt a flush of recognition: Yes, I thought; these photos and interviews are the real thing. These are people I recognize. Intimate, imperfect, and totally present. The photos aren’t stagey and glossy like Helmut Newton or David La Chapelle (whose work I love, but let’s be frank—life off the is not so spangly and slick), nor were they Diane Arbus-style gritty realism that bordered on the macabre. Expertly composed—but with a casual accessibility—they looked, well…homey. What he draws from his subjects is raw and as close to behind-the-scenes realness as I’ve ever seen in a project assembled by an outsider. I can only describe his rendering of this world as vibrant tenderness.

One of the ways that strippers are obscured in the public view is that we are stereotyped as people of limited capacity for intimacy and relationships. This book is a gorgeous, complex, and refreshing refutation of every assumption loaded into that stilted line of thinking. In that way, it is subversive. And I like that. But I also like that it is simply beautiful, and sincere, and true.

GENTLEMEN’S CLUB CHRIS BUCK SELECT IMAGES

Giovanna & Sarah

Talonn

Jerrod & Gabriella Brian

GENTLEMEN’S CLUB CHRIS BUCK SELECT IMAGES

Seth & Emily

Chris

Joseph Petr

GENTLEMEN’S CLUB CHRIS BUCK SAMPLE INTERVIEW — David & Celeste, Oakland CA

I met with David and Celeste for coffee the day before I photographed them, and we got on well right away. They were fun and adventurous.

We did the interview at their apt, and much of it felt like an education on the theory of , rather than the story behind their crackling romance. Nevertheless, their self-awareness and charm came through.

The photography had them more in their element. We did multiple setups with different approaches, all of which they embraced. We even did some kinbaku (Japanese ritual bondage) photos at the end, just for fun.

When did you find out that she danced?

Celeste: Right after he told me he loved me.

David: That’s true.

Celeste: But he said it anyway. I didn’t want it to be like, “By the way, you’re in love with a stripper. Surprise!”

David: We’d been together a month and a half, maybe two months, and what was interesting was, I’d come out of an eight-year relationship that was not particularly healthy. I spent a lot of my time attempting to fit her framework and try and make her happy.

When Celeste and I met, I’d actually been studying, just talking to people in the Bay Area about poly relationships, and just trying to understand different ways where I could find something that fit me better. Something that didn’t have all the jealousy and these other things that I’d seen.

When she told you she danced, what’d you say?

David: I think what I said was, “So.”

Celeste: That’s pretty much it.

David: I told her I loved her. It had dawned on me, not having planned to fall in love with anyone, that this person’s just kind of hit me in my core. I did not expect that, and I had been trying to keep myself a little guarded from that.

I told her that, and she’s like, “Fuck, I have to tell you something first.” She runs across the room, and comes back over and gives me this ID card.

Celeste: It’s my Sheriff’s Card. You need to register with the Las Vegas Police if you’re going to be working around alcohol, or as an entertainer of any kind. You could be a burlesque dancer, you could be a singer, but they want all your fingerprints on file.

David: She gave that to me, and I was like, “Okay, what is this?” She tells me she’s a stripper, and she just kind of lets it sit there. I’m like, “So…?” Because to me, it wasn’t necessarily relevant to the conversation that we were having.

I can see why it is to her, but one of the things that marked my ability to open up to her so quickly was our capacity to be intimate and to really communicate well. Being without a lot of ego was something I’d never run into before. I told her, “Look, I don’t have any problem with that. Let’s talk about this and figure out ways we could be safe, and like, work together.”

Why were you okay with it?

David: The concept never really bothered me. At one point, she’s like, “If you saw me dancing in the club, I think it would hurt you.” I was like, “I don’t have any falsehoods about who you are and what you do.” I think that’s just

GENTLEMEN’S CLUB CHRIS BUCK separate from what we do.

Have you ever gone to the club where she works?

Celeste: It’s actually in all my contracts that my dating partner is never in the strip club when we’re working. People get in jealous fights all the time.

David: Part of me is curious to see her dance.

Celeste: It would fuck with my work though. Like, I want to make money.

David: I’m not a huge fan of strip clubs. It’s never really connected with me. I never felt I had the money. [Laughs.] I don’t want to go in there and waste people’s time.

Celeste: That’s nice of you.

David: But it’s also an ego thing. I always felt like, I can talk and associate with people and be intimate with people, you know?

You’re saying you don’t need to pay for it?

David: That’s a dirty way of putting it, but sure. It’s weird, at least for me right now, to think about paying to talk to someone or be close to someone, when I think I can still find that.

Celeste: Some people think it cheapens the interaction if you’re paying for it.

David: I don’t necessarily think it does. The thing is, honestly, if I’d met Celeste in a strip club, I would probably be interested in her. The few times I’ve been to strip clubs in college, women would be dancing on you but hardly wanting to touch you, and never really looking you in the eye. There was this wall between you, even when you’re both right there. That concept kind of cheapened it for me and made me feel not good.

Celeste likes creating an intimate interaction and creating a connection with people. If that was what I came upon, it would have been different for me, but those were never my experiences.

How do I feel now?

Still fine. I think it comes down to: I have a lot of trust in what she does and in all parts of our life.

We have the capacity to talk to about absolutely anything that we need. If there were issues on either side, it wouldn’t be something that would be hard to talk about.

Celeste, you have anything to add to this?

Celeste: As for having a partner that truly doesn’t mind what I do, that’s pretty rare. When I started stripping, I had a boyfriend, and I didn’t tell him, ever. He still doesn’t know.

The second one, I kind of took care of him financially, so he can’t bitch about it. [Laughs.] The third one, he had some insecurity issues. He was older. He was thirty-five, I was twenty-one. He was a paraplegic. Very jealous. He said, “It hurts me to know that you’re going to work and giving your attention to other people.” I’m like, “It’s not your choice.”

Then I had one who was totally cool with it because he had his fair share of strip club time. He understood that it wasn’t dating.

GENTLEMEN’S CLUB CHRIS BUCK David: If the work she wants to do, or if she even changes the work she wants to do, or if we find other people attractive…anything that challenges our relationship, we take a moment to talk about it. Ultimately, we’re both here by choice; we aren’t linked together. At any point in time, we can decide something’s not working for us.

If I start telling her not to do things, she’s still going to want to do them. She’ll probably feel resentful to me for telling her not to do it.

Celeste: I’ll just leave.

Celeste, when we were talking yesterday, you said that people are surprised that you’ve got a real partner at home.

Celeste: When people have this idea of love, they think of it in a box. Some people think of it as only male-female, and some people think of it as only exclusive, and there are other people that are going to discount [that] if you’re poly, it’s not real love.

You can’t say that about somebody else’s love. You can’t know what fulfills them. People have this box of what they think love and a relationship are for strippers.

There’s a lot of stigma around the job. I don’t tell people right off the bat because they’ll just assume things, like I’m promiscuous or a prostitute. “Not being able to have a real relationship” goes in the stripper box. “Strippers are damaged goods and have daddy issues,” and stuff like that. A very common thought, but not in actual practice.

Talk a little bit about how you connect with people.

Celeste: It starts with the same, “Hi, I’m Larisa.” (That’s the name I normally use.) Half the time people will comment on my solid handshake. I have a shtick about my dad telling me how important handshakes were, and then you get a basic conversation going. Then I just try to find commonalities and go from there. Plus, lots of eye contact.

When somebody comes in, they aren’t expecting to find a real girl. We have good conversation. I feel like I made a difference. There are a lot of strippers that make people feel like shit, and I want them to feel they enjoyed their .

Many club customers feel like there is no connection during the dance, and there’s, “I just paid a girl a bunch of money and now I’m leaving.” But when they spend time with me, they’re often pleasantly surprised, and it makes me feel good. Makes me feel like I matter a little bit.

David: Tell me if I’m putting words in your mouth. With a lot of men going into a club, and the concept of what a club is, there is a lot of chauvinism and posturing, but Celeste finds a way to open up their vulnerability. A lot of people go in there because they want to feel good and to have a girl dance on them, but she has an ability to find people that she can stop and create that interconnection with. They’re glad to be in that space for that moment and realize that that’s something they might be missing in parts of their life.

Celeste: That’s a good way of putting it.

I like finding people that want to spend time with me. Yeah, there are some people that are, “Hey, you’re hot. Can I get a dance?” I try to do a good job, but I like getting to know them a little bit first. Having a joke to crack when my ass is in their face. [Laughs.]

Do you like having regular customers?

Celeste: Absolutely, because you know they’re going to come in. They normally have a certain dollar amount they’re going to spend, and you know that you’re not going to waste your time talking to them. You know you’re going to make money, and so you can just hang out and not stress about a hustle.

Do you actually talk about your history and your life? Dancers will tell me that customers will ask them all kinds of personal questions.

GENTLEMEN’S CLUB CHRIS BUCK David: “What’s your real name?”

Celeste: “Do you have a boyfriend?”

I think it’s rude and nosy when people ask those kinds of questions. It took me a while to realize they’re just trying to make conversation, and they’re just kind of shitty at conversation and boundaries.

Depending on the mood I’m in, I’ll make up a story, but normally I’m pretty honest about it. I don’t care. If they ask for a real name, I just spout one of my sisters’ names. And they’re like, “No, it’s not,” and I go through lists of roommates’ names. I’m just like, “I’ll shoot them off at you until...”

There’s the other extreme: I have a stack of business cards that people have given me. They’re real businesses; I’ve looked them up on LinkedIn. It’s the person you just danced for, you know?

Perhaps they’re giving it to you because there was a real connection.

David: The fact is that we do tell lies, as it’s one of the boundaries you create. So, one of the things I was very touchy about, coming out of my last relationship, was trying to trust people. We had that first connection; it was amazing. But I think that we were both a little cautious. It felt like we were reflecting the other person too much.

What do you mean “reflecting?”

David: Very empathetic people can be chameleons.

I think when she first meets people she keeps certain parts of her life private, for obvious reasons. You see those bits that she kind of cuts off, and at first, it made me a little hesitant. “What am I not seeing? What am I not understanding?”

One of the big things I learned from the last relationship was that sharing everything about your life doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re trusting somebody. Oversharing, having to talk about what you did today and what you ate today, doesn’t mean you trust somebody.

The fact that I don’t have to talk to her about certain things, unless we feel it’s important for us…that’s what trust is. “What did you do today? How many people did you dance with?” It doesn’t matter.

Realizing that she had the capacity to make these separations, I explored that internally for myself and said, “You know what, I have a pretty good compass. I trust what’s going on here.”

SELECTED PRESS LINKS

GENTLEMEN’S CLUB CHRIS BUCK ABOUT CHRIS BUCK

Chris Buck is a photographer and director based in New York and . His portraits have won placement in the prestigious annual American Photography over forty times, and he was the first recipient of the Arnold Newman Portrait Prize.

He has shot for some of the world’s most recognizable brands including Coca-Cola, Google, Microsoft, Kia, and TD Bank. A Cannes Lions Grand Prix was awarded to his controversial Diesel campaign that invited their customers to “Be Stupid.”

Chris Buck grew up in Toronto, Canada. His father worked for the Kodak company, creating an early and natural connection to photography. He moved to New York in 1990 and established himself as a sought-after commercial and editorial photographer. His current magazine clients include , Guardian Weekend and The New York Times Magazine.

He has published two books, Presence: The Invisible Portrait, Uneasy: Portraits 1986-2016, with the third, Gentlemen’s Club: Partners of Exotic Dancers, due Spring 2021.

DOWNLOAD CHRIS BUCK’S CV

Photo: Lou Noble MORE BOOKS BY CHRIS BUCK

UNEASY PRESENCE Portraits 1986-2016 The Invisible Portrait (2017) (2012)

Uneasy is a thirty year retrospective 50 portraits in which the of Chris Buck’s portraits of the famous subject is not visible. famous. Featuring 338 photographs, Witness forms verify each 129 stories, and six interviews. sitting took place.

CONTACT

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