56th New York Film Festival poster revealed

Ed Lachman and JR behind design

by Anne-Katrin Titze

Ed Lachman's Far From Heaven photographs at Anne-Dominique Toussaint’s Parisian Galerie Cinema in New York at the Cultural Services of the French Embassy
Ed Lachman's Far From Heaven photographs at Anne-Dominique Toussaint’s Parisian Galerie Cinema in New York at the Cultural Services of the French Embassy Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

The Film Society of Lincoln Center announced this afternoon that the 56th New York Film Festival poster has been collaboratively designed by cinematographer/photographer Ed Lachman (Todd Haynes's Carol, Wonderstruck, Todd Solondz's Wiener-Dog) and visual artist JR (Agnès Varda's Faces Places co-conspirator).

56th New York Film Festival poster designed by Ed Lachman and JR
56th New York Film Festival poster designed by Ed Lachman and JR

Recent New York Film Festival posters were designed by Richard Serra (2017), Apichatpong Weerasethakul (2016), and Laurie Anderson (2015).

“This year’s poster came together in the best imaginable way—spontaneously, at last year’s festival,” said New York Film Festival Director Kent Jones. “Dan Stern, our board president, was talking to Ed Lachman, one of the best DPs alive, a visual artist, and a regular at the NYFF, and asked him if he had any interest in doing a poster for this year. Ed thought it over, got back to Dan, and told him that he and JR—who was at the festival with his amazing collaboration with Agnès Varda, Faces Places—had been discussing the possibility of a collaboration, and they’d agreed that the NYFF poster presented them with a great opportunity. The result is better than we could ever have imagined, a real thing of beauty, and it’s going to be a favourite.”

Ed Lachman explains, “Being at the Festival is the highlight of the year for me, when I’m not working. It’s a place to meet, share, and experience what cinema can be. The opportunity to create the poster for the New York Film Festival and collaborate with JR was a formidable experience and similar to filmmaking, where one works with other visual artists to create a project. I’ve had the greatest respect and admiration for his work over the years, both visually and how he engages communities he’s portraying within a social context, which I think is so important in today’s world, to find how we're all connected, rather than separated and divided.”

According to Lachman, “The idea came together using JR’s emblematic eyes . . . What is cinema without the mind, the heart, and the eyes of the filmmakers? Using the director’s eyes can symbolise the creative force behind the images and the stories that the Festival has championed and represented to New York over the years, supported by the audience holding the placards of their eyes, and what can be more New York than our alleyways?”

The 2018 New York Film Festival runs from September 28 through October 14.

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