Brooke Fitts: Twin Peaks

BY Wonderful Machine 20 June 2017

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.

Welcome to Twin Peaks by Brooke Fitts — The leading spread in the American Way article features the one-time location of the infamous “Welcome to Twin Peaks” sign featured in the show. Since these photographs were made, a permanent replica of this sign has been installed

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

Double R Diner by Brooke Fitts — *The infamous Double R Diner (known as Twede’s Cafe in real life) makes an appearance in the new season*

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.

The Great Northern Hotel overlooking Snoqualmie Falls shot by Brooke Fitts — *The Great Northern Hotel overlooking Snoqualmie Falls. The hotel was the scene of many strange occurrences and where the protagonist, Special Agent Dale Cooper, resided for the entire series*

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.

Mayor Ken Hearing photographed by Brooke Fitts — *North Bend’s current Mayor, Ken Hearing*

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.

Cherry Pie and coffee and Ronette Bridge by Brooke Fitts — Cherry Pie and Coffee from the cafe known as Double R Diner in Showtime’s Twin Peaks revival. This was Special Agent Dale Cooper’s favorite meal in the show. (right) Ronette’s Bridge was featured in a haunting scene in which viewers were first introduced to the disheveled and traumatized Phoebe Augustine, a prominent character in the series

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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