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Last spring, outside the Los Angeles cabin, Amy Kellner, senior photo editor for The New York Times Magazine, faced a challenge. Prop stylists have ordered over 100 wild flowers, proteas, tulips and herbs so that the comedian Seth Rogen, the subject of the cover shoot, can lie down. However, when photographer Chris Buck took a test shot from above, he noticed that Rogen’s facial features looked distorted from that angle. So Mr. Buck came up with a quick solution. String the flowers to the wire mesh, lift them with a clamp stand, and have the standing Rogen pierce your head. “He was a game,” Kellner said.
Shooting with Mr. Rogen is just one of the ambitious and stylist-inspired photography that is regularly published in magazines each year. But behind the scenes, a few weeks of preparation are spent shooting. This can take up to 4 hours, involving more than 12 people and resulting in hundreds of outtakes. Let’s see how these are combined.
Concept brainstorming
It takes one week to three months to prepare for the photo shoot. The first step is a brainstorming meeting with the magazine’s creative team, led by Editor-in-Chief Jake Silverstein, Creative Director Gale Bitchler, and Photo Director Kathy Ryan. In a session about Rogen, Kellner and Buck suggested 12 concepts after a week of brainstorming. Their ideas include taking a picture of Mr. Rogen in a teddy bear costume, putting his head in a jar and even a swarm of forest creatures, perhaps with a skunk on his shoulder to nod to marijuana. (Mr. Rogen is a cannabis company).
When everyone agrees on the concept, the creative team works with the photographer to refine the idea. This may evolve until the day of shooting.
Celebrities may know the concept of shooting before stepping on the set, but sometimes the idea is surprising or the plan changes. “You want to capture their personality, but sometimes you don’t know what it is until you meet them,” said magazine photo editor David Cursus. “That’s the challenge.”
Preparing for photography
Before shooting, the photo editor tries to learn as much as possible about the subject, such as how the subject was previously shot, to make sure the concept is fresh.
“People don’t know the research needed to create an original photo,” Kellner said.
The creative team does whatever it takes to realize the concept. Each photo shoot has its own challenges and the team needs to adapt quickly. For example, Kellner said in a cover shoot with “Better Cole Sole” actor Bob Odenkirk, photographer Zachary Scott drove a barrel cactus from the California backyard to the location of the Albuquerque shoot for 14 hours. Said. Odenkirk eventually talked to the cactus to take pictures, danced, and eventually sat down on the cactus. (There was a small, transparent plexiglass between him and the cactus.)
Ryan says that even images that come from momentary ideas on the set only occur because the creative team has researched and developed aesthetics before shooting. “You make your own luck,” she said.
Take dangerous pictures
Teams always take traditional portraits, but usually magazines are dangerous photos. “We have to seize the opportunity. When we’re prepared, magic happens, and we’re ready to accept voluntary things,” Ryan said.
For example, the creative team and photographer Arielle Bobb-Willis had a vision of a single-color shot of the cover of the March 2020 issue of Billie Eilish. Irish is all dressed in green (including green hair) and was shot in front of a green background. She was finally caught in an unusual pose: bend back.
“Ariel is great in choreography,” said Cursus, who produced the shoot. He said she and Irish were doing well on the set. That’s why Irish felt comfortable enough to move around and pose like her.
But even for more minimalist photography, a seasoned photographer feels like a subject, as Ruth Negga, a Colombian-born photographer known for his elegant and modern portraits, shot Ruth Negga in December. I know how to pivot based on. The issue of the great performers of 2021. Nega, who is quite playful on the set, was shot with a curly mustache drawn on her face by a make-up artist with an eyeliner pencil.
“Sometimes these require tremendous planning,” Ryan said of photography. “Also, someone may have a nice unexpected idea that we can build.”
