Over the past two years photographer David Eger has built a dedicated following with his clever Star Wars-inspired photos. His first project in 2011, 365 Days of Clones, featured daily pictures of toy clone troopers acting out humorous and/or historical scenes. In his next project, 52 Weeks of Star Wars, Eger did a mashup of Star Wars characters and iconic images each week in 2012.
This year, Eger, 30, has decided to slow things down while upping the ante. As a new dad he doesn't have time to pump out frequent photos, so this year he'll be producing a series of monthly photos called 12 Months of Hope, Empire and Jedi. The aim is to tell the entire story of the original Star Wars trilogy with 12 pictures (four scenes per film). The kicker is that the 12 photos he makes not only have to tell the stories of three movies, but also resemble or mimic classic works of art.
"There are a few shots I've got in mind, but there are probably seven or eight where I have no idea what I'm going to do," Eger says.
The best way to understand the new project is to look at the first photo he posted in January. He named it the “The Calling of Obi-Wan Kenobi” and it's based on Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio's "The Calling of Saint Matthew." Finished in 1600, the original painting depicts a moment when Jesus shines both a figurative and physical light on Matthew, a Jewish tax collector, and convinces him to become a follower. The scene in Star Wars comes in Episode IV: A New Hope, when Princess Leia asks for Obi-Wan Kenobi's help via a holographic message played by R2-D2.
The project is fraught with obstacles, not only because of Eger's self-imposed restrictions, but also because Star Wars fans are opinionated. He knows he'll be criticized for some of the 12 scenes he picks as "foundational moments."
"I know it's going to be extremely difficult," he says.
To create the photos Eger is using the same techniques he's used from previous projects. Almost all the pictures are staged in his basement studio using the 500 or so Star Wars figurines he's collected since he was a kid. He has toys from the original release, a re-release in the 1990s as well as contemporary figures. The original toys are valuable as collector's items but Eger prefers the newer ones for photos because their articulation points can be wrangled into more creative positions.
The photos are lit with just a couple of flashes and Eger builds a lot of his own backgrounds and props. He's worked hard to keep things as analog as possible. In his recreation of the 300 movie poster for example, he could have kept the original background and used Photoshop to replace the original characters with Star Wars toys. Instead he built the cliff out of a box and sheet, recreated the lighting, arranged the toys on top of the box and then hung the falling clones hanging by wires (which were Photoshopped out). For the backgrounds that are impossible to recreate with household items, like the clones crossing Abbey Rode, he makes the picture by calling the original photo up on his computer screen and then shooting the toys in front of the screen.
Eger won't reveal many details about what might come next but we did manage to squeeze one more upcoming detail out of him. He says he's definitely going to recreate the epic lightsaber duel between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader, which comes at the midpoint of Episode IV. He's yet to find an appropriate piece of art to match it with.
"I'm sure I'll be hitting my head against the wall while trying to figure it out in the coming months," he says.