Photog Collaboration

A recent assignment from Checking Focus was to do a collaboration with another photographer. I asked my regular photo assistant, Sophia Pallwein-Prettner, and she was happily on board.

She soon came to me with concepts, and we brainstormed them on a phone call. We tried exploring photographing a woman giving birth in an unusual place, and some modeling twins she’d previously been in touch with, but neither went anywhere. There was also talk of shooting people peeing in public, hipsters with "homeless style," and weird things coming out of people's mouths (like dripping fruit).

We struggled with finding subjects for our ambitious ideas, so we ended up shooting at her apartment in Bushwick, Brooklyn, and taking each other as subjects. (We were already meeting to do a magazine assignment later that day.)

Photographing each other as single portraits went fine. Sophia was brazen in making me pose in ways that were uncomfortable and vaguely humiliating, including having small farm animals coming out of my mouth. I was impressed!

We've been working together for two and a half years, with Sophia starting as my intern in early 2024. She’s loyal and a hard worker, but most importantly, she's a fun and easy person to spend time with. She’s laid-back, funny, and weird (in the good way). She is a bit of a paradox: she is warm and agreeable, but she cuts her own path on how she carries herself in the world. Ultimately, she brings a good energy to set, and is always a pleasure to have around.

I like that the two-shot of us conveys some of the playfulness and creativity that we have in our shoot days. I also like the matching bowling shirts, showing a sense of connection; like we’re playing for the same team.

And there’s something extra going on; perhaps because neither of us is behind the camera and it’s a bit uncontrolled and chaotic. Taking pictures with the timer, we had to create a synchronicity with timing and the posing — lining up the flame and the cigarettes, while maintaining that we’re both in focus. It added something additional to the image that was unplanned and a little magical.

Top Image: Sophia Pallwein-Prettner & Chris Buck, Brooklyn, NY, June 26, 2026.

Bottom Image: Chris by Sophia.