JEFF COHEN PHOTOGRAPHY CELEBRATES SECOND YEAR IN BUSINESS AND THE 60th ANNIVERSARY OF A HISTORIC LOVESEAT THAT WAS THE SET OF MANY CELEBRITY PHOTOGRAPHS

RAVINIA DISTRICT, HIGHLAND PARK, IL (OCTOBER 2014) - Highland Park resident and award winning photographer, Jeff Cohen is celebrating his second year in business at an open house where he will also celebrate the 60th anniversary of his 1954 Chevy BelAir…. but this is not any ordinary automobile – or celebration.

While the 60-year-old vehicle may be rare and highly collectable, Cohen’s Chevy has been artistically converted into a loveseat, with many stories to tell. Serving as Playboy Magazine’s photo editor for some 30 years, Cohen has photographed countless Playmates and models who climbed aboard, including Cohen’s boss Hugh Hefner, who made it a point to bring his girlfriends for a Chevy photo op.

“If only that couch could talk,” reminisces Cohen, who recalls the many celebrities he has photographed in the Chevy trunk-seat, including Tom Cruise, John Candy and Pete Rose.

And on Saturday, October 25th from noon-6pm, Cohen is inviting the public to visit his studio and take a seat on the couch that is prominently displayed in his Ravinia District studio at 485 Roger Williams Avenue, and celebrate in 1950’s style.

Cohen will be hosting a Fabulous Fifties Party and welcomes guests to come dressed in their favorite 1950’s poodle skirts, saddle shoes, Greaser jackets and bowling shirts, and throw back to the era of Rock N’ Roll and Sock Hops! Cohen will be taking photos for a small donation to charity.

THE HISTORY OF THE CHEVY LOVESEAT

Cohen admits he’s not the creator of this strangely odd but highly functional piece of art, but inherited the 1954 Chevy ‘trunk-seat’ from its creator, California based sculptor and visionary Pippa Garner. Cohen and Garner were living in San Francisco in the mid-70’s when they met and realized they shared a comic twisted sense of automobiles and their functionality.

Garner was in the process of creating his car furniture art for a Car & Driver magazine article and needed photography of each piece. Cohen got the gig and photographed not only the ’54 Chevy, but a fully functioning executive desk made from the dashboard of Buick Skylark, its chair from a bucket seat and the a wood burning fireplace from a gaping grill of a 1960 Chrysler 300. “Each piece of Pippa’s furniture was truly amazing, taking him countless days to create, and each was fully functional,” recalls Cohen. “But the only piece to survive was the Chevy, which Pippa allowed me to store in my San Francisco warehouse photo studio.”

Over the years the two worked together on several other projects for national publications including Esquire, Road & Track and even Playboy. Cohen remembers the Esquire project in which Garner rebuilt a ’59 Chevy to drive backwards down the street. “We drove it across the Golden Gate Bridge and got stopped by the cops. They didn’t see the humor in Pippa’s creation.” Garner soon moved to Los Angeles leaving the Chevy in Cohen’s good hands and continued to create bizarre objects and inventions and after an appearance on the Johnny Carson Show (the video clip is available on YouTube} his national fame and recognition soared. About the same time Garner fled to LA, Cohen got a call from Playboy offering him a job in Chicago.

Cohen accepted, but on one condition that in whatever office he was assigned there had to be room for the Chevy Couch. Playboy was puzzled but agreed and Jeff relocated to the windy city. During his many years at Playboy, Cohen’s couch became known to the entire company, with employees, corporate execs, and even celebrities taking a seat to be photographed.

And now, that famous well-traveled, well-seated and well-photographed piece of furniture, finds its home in Jeff Cohen Photography Studio in Highland Park’s Ravinia District.