Los Angeles photographer John Eder was surprised to get a call from the Village Voice’s art director, John Dixon, asking if he’d be interested in shooting the weekly’s “Best Of New York” cover and interior photos. Especially since the photos all involved NYC locations.
“The Voice was one of my very first clients, when I lived in NYC in the 80s.” Eder happily accepted the assignment “The idea was that New York is often accused of not having ‘traditional American values’, so the Voice wanted to present typically American past times like selling lemonade, barbequing and ice fishing in incongruous New York locations, as done by kind of clichéd modern hipster types.”
Voice art director Dixon chose Eder for the humor in his images as well as the Photoshop chops to pull off such an ambitious project. Eder’s first step was to enlist his friend, photographer Wendy Hope to shoot the backdrops of New York locations. Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, models were cast, and wardrobe stylist Janet Freund and hair and makeup artist Mitzi Spallas signed on. The models were all shot against a green screen, and lit to match Hope’s background plates.
After the shoot the post production work began, with over a month spent on finishing the seven pictures in Eder’s distinctive style. Shooting bits and pieces went on throughout the post-work, especially finding the right yellow cab and jacked up truck to hybridize into a monster truck yellow cab, finding an ice skating rink in Los Angeles, and getting Hollywood club the Avalon to turn on its state-of-the-art disco light rig for a backdrop.
This was the Voice’s first-ever glossy cover in its history, as well as six interior photos, four of which are double pages. The work can also be viewed online at http://villagevoice.com
