Post date: Dec 19, 2013 11:56:37 PM
A "beefcake calendar" featuring New York taxi drivers is a hit for the holidays.
NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (DECEMBER 19, 2013) (REUTERS) - A calendar with photographs of New York City cabbies posing provocatively might be one the "hottest" gifts this holiday season.
On Thursday (December 19) Phil Kirkman and Shannon McLaughlin, creators of the "New York City Taxi Calendar" spoke with Reuters about how the project came to be."I thought of the idea a few years ago when I, the original idea was to shoot it of my oldest brother as a gag gift for his wife last Christmas. So we actually shot his calendar last December and it was well received by our family and friends so, from there we sort of had decided that we wanted to expand that into something very iconic New York. And a long story short, we came up with the idea of the yellow cab," Kirkman -- who left his Wall Street job to pursue his creative calling -- explained.
Together with McLaughlin, his fiancé and freelance photographer, they put up online advertisements looking for volunteer cabbies and got 15 responses from interested drivers.
From those 15, seven ended up modeling for the calendar.
McLaughlin said she has happy with her group of models and explained that they were a good representation of taxi drivers in New York.
"Ninety percent of the taxi drivers in New York City are immigrants, and as it turns out, 100 percent of the gentlemen that we photographed are immigrants. So it's so nice to be able to put a face to these often anonymous people who help us drive around the city and who are such an integral part of transportation of New York City."
From the several thousand shots he took, only a handful made it to print.
Coordinating times was the hardest part recalled McLaughlin, as the models were working drivers and they had to do the photo shoots according to their schedule.
But everybody was happy with the end result.
"They loved it. It was a very, very positive reaction. One of our drivers said his wife said she thinks that he is extra sexy now. They had a really, really good time with it."
The calendars are sold on http://www.nyctaxicalendar.com for $14.99 (USD) each.
So far Kirkman has sold out his first batch of calendars and more are in print.
"We are at about 4,000 sold right now. We are still receiving orders obviously. And the response has been very positive. We have gotten a lot of obviously media coverage but also a lot of customers writing in and you know thanking us for the calendar and appreciating the work. It's been very well received."
But Kirkman and McLaughlin are not doing it for the money.
Proceeds from the calendar sales will go 100 percent to University Settlement, a charity supporting low-income and immigrant families.