Photo illustration by Craig Cutler for The New York Times Magazine, February 9, 2014, issue.
.
The New York Times Magazine’s cover story this past Sunday explored the notion of whether equality among men and women has a diminishing effect when it comes to the romance department.
“There’s more gender-fluidity when it comes to who brings in the money, who does the laundry and dishes, who drives the car pool and braids the kids’ hair, even who owns the home,” writes Lori Gottlieb, adding, “…The very qualities that lead to greater emotional satisfaction in peer marriages, as one sociologist calls them, may be having an unexpectedly negative impact on these couples’ sex lives.”
“The challenge, in terms of creating art for the article, was how to show two spouses who were both equal and less sexual,” explains art director Gail Bichler in a Times Magazine blog post called “Illustrating a Sexless But Equal Marriage.” Having decided that “a photographic approach that showed people would be more compelling for an article that deals with sexuality,” they next had to determine the concept for that photo.
“Ultimately,” she continues, “we settled on photographing a couple in bed from above, lying side by side in the shape of an equal sign. That also allowed us to extend that idea by positioning the couple’s bodies in different ways to form other signs suggesting how the spouses might relate to each other.”
.
Photo illustration by Craig Cutler for The New York Times Magazine.
Photo illustration by Craig Cutler for The New York Times Magazine.
.
The magazine asked Craig Cutler to bring the concept to life. “This is my favorite kind of assignment: a strong concept with multiple layers of problem solving,” he says.
The camera was rigged 25 feet above the set, and the mattress—made of layers of foam padding—was 12 x 14 feet. Fern Rudin, who has worked with Martha Stewart and Sferra, created an extra-large sheet for the talent to lie on.
“Everything had to be pre-set ahead of time, including the lighting,” Craig explains. “There was a lot of attention paid to safety. Because the lighting and camera were over the talent, everything had to be safely strapped down.
“The most satisfying part,” he continues, “was directing the talent to create symbols when they could not see what they were doing. It was all about slight body adjustments to create the right shapes. It also helped that we had the most amazing baby wrangler, Melanie Sawyer, who was incredible with the babies.”
.
The view from the set, looking up.
Getting the details right.
Babying the babies.
Craig Cutler (bottom right, in white shirt) and his studio manager, Fela Cortes (top right, dressed in black), and the crew.
.
.
