Buck Ellison

In his photographs, Buck Ellison examines the ostensibly frivolous material signifiers of white elitist societies to initiate broader conversations on class and inequality. Ellison’s highly stylized and arranged mise-en-scenes of upper-class quietude magnify the immensity of who and what is not portrayed but imaginably resides just down the hill from the staged, skylit kitchens and rosebush-lined driveways where his sun-basked actors roleplay the lives of the blissfully preoccupied leisure set. In their exclusion, the circumstances of the lives just outside of frame somehow become more present, enveloping the smug smiles, radiant flowers, and light-drenched interiors in an unsettling pall. (Recipient of the Paris Photo–Aperture First PhotoBook of the Year Award, Paris in 2020)