Photography by JUCO | Retouching by Anna Glen at Wet Noodle
The Moment: 1930: Gay artist Grant Wood
paints his masterpiece, American Gothic.
Starting with Todd Haynes's 1991 film Poison, Christine Vachon's 50-plus credits as a film producer read like a New Queer Cinema syllabus, with works by directors such as Kimberly Peirce and John Cameron Mitchell. This year, Vachon produced Haynes's next film, Carol, an adaptation of the 1952 lesbian romance novel The Price of Salt. To truly appreciate the uphill battle faced by independent films like Vachon's, it helps to be a climber like Eugene Hernandez. The consummate cinephile spent more than a decade as co-founder and editor in chief of Indiewire before joining New York's Film Society of Lincoln Center as director of digital strategy in 2010. Hernandez has since risen to become the society's deputy director, and his knack for examining what's in the frame comes through in his thoughts on re-creating this image. "I see us as stand-ins," he says, "for anyone supporting American filmmakers who continue to challenge attitudes and ideas."
Photographed at George Brown Studio, New York on September 17, 2014
Styling by Michael Cook. Hair and Makeup: Angela DiCarlo. Background painting by Sean Slaney.
