Photographer Chris Buck captures people who aren't quite who they seem.

Tiffany Claus isn't Angelina Jolie

Chris Buck

Pavel Sfera isn't Bono

Chris Buck

Paul Cooper isn't Bill Gates

Chris Buck

Caroline Hodge isn't Oprah Winfrey

Chris Buck

Jeremy Stritzinger isn't Justin Timberlake

Chris Buck

Edward Moss isn't Michael Jackson

Chris Buck

Howie Slater isn't Steven Spielberg

Chris Buck

Rob Bessent isn't Pope Benedict XVI

Chris Buck

Stuart Rigby isn't Tom Cruise

Chris Buck

Chris America isn't Madonna

Chris Buck

Paul Cooper isn't Bill Gates

Chris Buck

Jack Black, from the series Presence

Chris Buck

There's a documentary in the works right now — about a guy named Louis Ortiz whose livelihood depends on the success of President Obama in this upcoming election. Ortiz doesn't work on the Hill, or in politics at all, really. One day, Ortiz realized he looked just like Obama, and he has been honing his skills as an impersonator ever since.

Celebrity impersonators like Ortiz fascinate photographer Chris Buck — possibly because he spends a lot of time shooting real celebrities for magazines. In his series Isn't, shot for GQ and Maxim and independently, Buck focuses on the people who aren't quite who they seem. Caroline Hodge, for example, isn't Oprah Winfrey. And no, Paul Cooper is not Bill Gates.

In his own annotated biography, Buck writes that he is a "Canadian-born photographer known for his distinctive portrait style." That is: clean and often comical or surprising scenes — like Steve Martin with baguette fingers and Steve Carrell uncomfortably prostrate.

Another quirky take on celebrity portraiture is his most recent series, called Presence: The Invisible Portrait, in which he photographs his subjects hiding from the camera. So in this photo of Jack Black, you just have to trust Buck that the comedian is lurking somewhere behind that wall.

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