We Are Family

By Holly Stuart Hughes

FEBRUARY 24, 2005 -- Who's that guy Ben Affleck is hugging? That's probably the first question that comes to mind when viewers see the celebrity photos featured on the brightly-colored, new poster campaign showing up on bus shelters and subways in New York and Washington. To the families of gays and lesbians, the outdoor ads, which carry the tagline, "Stay Close," have another message as well.

The posters--featuring public figures with a loved one who is gay--are part of a new pro bono campaign for Parents and Friends of Gays and Lesbians (PFLAG), a national organization that offers support, advocacy and education on sexual orientation. Several advertising professionals and a half dozen photographers volunteered their time and resources to the campaign, which sends the message that families don't have to break apart just because one member has come out of the closet.

James Lewin, creative director at McCann Erickson (formerly with Amster Yard) and account manager Fanny Delauney, first began the project back in 2002, drawing up a list of celebrities they wanted to photograph and, with the help of art producer Jana Welch, a list of photographers they wanted to work with.

When Ben Affleck and his cousin Jason agreed to pose for the campaign, the actor suggested that they do the shoot with photographer Peter Sorel, who was already set to shoot Affleck for another story. Cyndi Lauper, a long-time PFLAG supporter, and her sister Ellen were among the first to agree to the project; Dean Groover photographed them giggling together after one of the singer's rehearsals.

Others who worked on the campaign were Justin Steele (who photographed Dick and Jane Gephardt and their daughter Chrissy), Rodolphe Fouche (Barbara Cook and her son Adam), and Carl Posey (Representative Gregory Meeks and his brother John).

Knowing the images would be shot in different settings under a variety of lighting conditions, Lewin and art director Lee Kelly (who, like Welch and Lewin, now works at McCann) came up with a way to give the images a unified look in post-production: The images would be shot in color but converted to black and white, then silhouetted so a background color could be dropped in.

"That freed up the photographers to a certain extent, I think," Lewin says. "We wanted the subjects to interact and show the comfort and closeness between them. Our demands on the photographers were not stylistic but rather about getting these authentic moments.

"More than anything I've ever worked on," concludes Lewin, "this campaign has had a recognizable impact on people."