American Way Magazine Photo Editor Mark Mantegna needed to find a photographer to shoot a story about North Bend, Washington — the same rural town that was featured in the David Lynch’s cult classic TV show, Twin Peaks. Because of increased interest due to the recent release of a new season of the program, Mark wanted the story to include pictures of where the show was originally shot.
Being a sensible guy, Mark headed to Wonderful Machine, where he found Brooke Fitts, a Seattle-based photographer who was more than happy to accept the assignment! A fan of the show herself, Brooke was excited at the opportunity to contribute.
Once she arrived in North Bend, Brooke chatted with Derrick Lange, the writer of the article. He introduced her to a few of the town’s characters he’d interviewed for the story.
Brooke enjoyed chatting with and photographing the locals. She also had the chance to discuss what it was like to live in a place with such a cult following
People defintely had mixed feelings about their town being a kind of bizzare tourist attraction….the reactions were both positive and negative
Since all the images were shot on location, Brooke had to use natural light and choose when to shoot each scene based on the position of the sun.
I wanted to provide images at different times of the day with different lighting and some evening/twilight shots too.
Brooke also enjoyed the fact that Mark gave her a good deal of creative freedom to wander throughout the town and shoot what sparked her interest.
Mark had a rough shot list of specific locations from the show to go by, but also allowed me to stray from it and shoot how I saw things, which I loved.
Since the show has such a huge following, Brooke knew she had big boots to fill, but the client and fans’ reaction to her pictures have been overwhelmingly positive.
Brooke was also thrilled that she’s been able to capitalize on the current popularity of the show by submitting some of the shoot’s outtakes to stock agencies.
On a recent American Airlines flight from Fort Lauderdale to NYC, Brooke was surprised and delighted to come across her images in the in-flight magazine.
It was a fun and unexpected way to find the pictures!
See more of Brooke at brookefitts.photo.
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