Stockland Martel » photography

Craig Cutler on shooting the New York Times Magazine’s cover story on the “sexless but equal marriage”

Kristina Feliciano — Tue, 11 Feb 2014 12:54:37 +0000

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.

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.

Michael Muller shoots key art for season two of NBC’s “Hannibal”

Kristina Feliciano — Mon, 10 Feb 2014 15:29:50 +0000

Hugh Dancy in key art for season two of “Hannibal,” which premieres February 28. Photo by Michael Muller for NBC.

Violet by Melanie Acevedo

Kristina Feliciano — Thu, 30 Jan 2014 17:18:15 +0000

Presenting “Violet,” a sneak peek at a new series on teens and tweens by Melanie Acevedo. More to come soon…
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“Violet.” Photo by Melanie Acevedo.

Wristwatches with Matchbox cars, toy soldiers, green slime, and more by Jan Steinhilber

Kristina Feliciano — Thu, 23 Jan 2014 16:13:20 +0000

For the December issue of the German edition of Men’s Health, Jan Steinhilber photographed a series of watch still lifes, with setups ranging from stacked Matchbox cars to a pile of miniature plastic skeletons to a tableaux of lime-green toy trashcans spilling out slime. A typical accessories story this is not. Here’s a look…

Photo by Jan Steinhilber for Men’s Health, German edition, December 2013 issue.

Photo by Jan Steinhilber for Men’s Health.

Credits

client: Men’s Health, Germany
editor: Marc Weinreuter
picture editor: Grit Brueggemann
art director: Alexander Schomberg

Schwab commissions Doug Menuez for corporate image library

Kristina Feliciano — Wed, 22 Jan 2014 17:31:08 +0000

Charles Schwab brokerage and banking company recently commissioned Doug Menuez to capture the life and values of typical Schwab customers, in all their many varieties, as well as to photograph inside the corporate offices.

Doug approached the brief two ways: He created authentic-feeling moments with models in controlled environments, and he went out into the streets to photograph the models as they blended into scenes of everyday life. Below, some of the many highlights from the image library he produced for Schwab…

Photo by Doug Menuez for Charles Schwab.

Nigel Cox photographs nail art for Essence magazine

Kristina Feliciano — Tue, 21 Jan 2014 13:36:45 +0000

Photo by Nigel Cox for Essence, January 2014 issue.

Photo by Nigel Cox for Essence.

Nadav Kander for Baylor College of Medicine

Kristina Feliciano — Fri, 17 Jan 2014 17:25:31 +0000

For this recent campaign for Baylor College of Medicine, the concept was to use hands as a poetic metaphor for the tools employed in “giving life to possible,” as the tagline says. Olson, the ad agency on the account, commissioned Nadav Kander to photograph the hands of doctors, researchers, and students at Baylor for the campaign, which was featured in Lürzer’s Archive Vol. 6/2013. Here’s a look…

Photo by Nadav Kander for Baylor College of Medicine.

Liz Von Hoene for Ines DiSanto

Kristina Feliciano — Thu, 16 Jan 2014 18:25:59 +0000

Back in November, Liz Von Hoene photographed an evening-themed story featuring gowns by designer Ines DiSanto on the streets of Brooklyn.

“The whole shoot was a mystical evening of cinematic magic!” says Liz, who collaborated with creative director Deborah Moses. “We had a great time shooting late into the night on the streets of Williamsburg. Thank you to an amazing crew: hairstylist Chuck Amos; makeup artist Frances Hathaway; wardrobe stylist Juli Alvarez; our model, Daphne; and Jamie Vance and Anne Curran Conrad of production company Sweet Genius for putting it all together!”
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Photo by Liz Von Hoene for Ines DiSanto.

“Another Day”: a new portfolio by Steven Lippman shot exclusively for Malibu magazine

Kristina Feliciano — Wed, 15 Jan 2014 16:00:20 +0000

Malibu magazine commissioned Steven Lippman to shoot an exclusive portfolio of images for its December 2013/January 2014 issue, and to direct a short film to accompany it. Below, “Another Day,” with styling by Maya Krispin…

Photo by Steven Lippman.

Some unpublished images from Steven’s shoot…

Photo by Steven Lippman.

Liz Von Hoene for El País Semanal: “simple, beautiful, classic”

Kristina Feliciano — Mon, 13 Jan 2014 14:19:15 +0000

Below, images from a beauty story that Liz Von Hoene recently shot for El País Semanal with stylist Almudena Guerra.

“I met Almudena through a good producer friend and am a firm believer that like energy attracts, so I was not surprised to discover that she has a great eye,” says Liz. “She approached me about the editorial, and I was very excited to shoot something simple, beautiful, and classic.”

Photo by Liz Von Hoene for El País Semanal.