Photography by Danielle Levitt
Audrey Smaltz & Gail Marquis
Newlyweds
Smaltz (third from left) and Marquis (far left) had the wedding most New Yorkers would kill for. Held at the Central Park Pool, their nuptials made The New York Times Vows section, a high honor that New York newlyweds covet. Smaltz, a former model and founder of the Ground Crew, a backstage support team for the fashion industry, and Marquis, a former Olympic basketball player and financial maven, would later capture the limelight again, becoming subjects of Antony Osso's The Devotion Project, a film series celebrating queer love.
Antony Osso
Filmmaker
Disappointed by the lack of positive gay representation in the media, Osso (second from left) launched The Devotion Project, a series of short films that capture the lives of six LGBT couples and families. "I wanted to tell stories that were various, uplifting, and specific," says Osso. To his surprise and delight, more than half a million people have seen the project since its launch this past spring. "From when I started directing plays in high school, I always wanted to direct and tell stories," he says. "It's always about 'What's the next story?' and 'What's the best way to reach people with it?' "
Chris Mason Johnson
Director
"I was a nerdy little kid watching old movies on TV, memorizing who the directors were and figuring out what the camera was doing," says Johnson (far right), who was able to put all that research to spectacular use in his sophomore movie, Test, a tender and touching meditation on the AIDS crisis set in San Francisco in 1985. "The thing that was special about Test was I made something that was very personal," says Johnson. "To have people respond positively to that is incredibly rewarding, so I want to keep doing that -- I want to keep doing work that matters."
Photographed at Dune Studios in New York City on September 16, 2013
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