’s. Look closer and you’ll find a completely different perspective, one far less congenial. When looking at wealth, Buck says, the importance is not to understand “privilege”, but instead do away with the concept entirely, and interrogate the “mechanisms that preserve inequality”. Using actors and props to recreate the inner sanctuaries of these cloistered communities, Buck’s first monograph --
My subject seemed to very actively resist its own depiction. In a society that’s formally democratic and egalitarian, no one wants to show you the mechanisms that preserve inequality. The manners or behaviours I want to depict are often so shrouded or tucked away that suddenly the camera’s mythic ability to ‘capture’ or ‘expose’ felt especially useful and appealing.
So I scouted the location, cast the models, paid for the one model to get cupping, and spent a long time sourcing stickers and clothes . These prop and styling decisions were important because I wanted to suggest that a series of painstakingly considered decisions had preceded the moment we see.
explores “how wealth, privilege and whiteness are sustained and broadcast in America” -- what drew you to this?