J.W. Burleson photo / Boquillas del Carmen, Coah.

PHB

My photo
Brooklin, Maine, United States
We own a 1975 GMC Sierra Grande 15 in Maine and a 1986 Chevrolet Custom Deluxe 10 in West Texas. Also a pair of 1997 Volvo 850 wagons. Average age in the fleet is 28 years--we're recycling. I've published 3 novels: THE LAW OF DREAMS (2006), THE O'BRIENS (2012), and CARRY ME (2016). Also 2 short story collections: NIGHT DRIVING(1987) and TRAVELLING LIGHT (2013). More of my literary life is at www.peterbehrens.org I was a Fellow at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study for 2012-13. I'm an adjunct professor at Colorado College and in the MFA program at Queens University of Charlotte. In 2015-16 I was a Fellow at Harvard University's Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. The Autoliterate office is in Car Talk Plaza in Harvard Square, 2 floors above Dewey Cheatem & Howe. SUBSCRIBE TO THE AUTOLITERATE DAILY EMAIL by hitting the button to the right.

Thursday, December 8, 2011

The LL Bean shoot & the Fairlane

Back in October we were involved in an LL Bean photo shoot over on Mount Desert Island. They were basically reconstructing a catalogue cover from the early 1960s, which had a station wagon of the era, canoe strapped on the roof, etc. I'd been recruited to be one of the characters in the scene--I think I was supposed to be "Gramps" though no one actually said that. Anyway, I was given a pipe as one of my props. The most interesting thing from my POV was this nice little Fairlane wagon that they had scouted and had come up from Massachusetts. I have a weird passion for station wagons , especially of that era and especially Fords.


     I'm not sure why, but if I could have any car in the world, I would probably want a 1960 Ford Country Squire. Black, with a red interior. Like this one:


But back to LL Bean. As is the way with photo shoots, nothing much happened for a very long time while we waited for the late afternoon magic hour light that all commercial photographers seems to prefer. BB spent some time in the base-camp RV, getting make-up to make her look like some stylized version of an early 1960s mom. I don't think the art direction on this shoot was very accurate; she ended up looking, not early- but mid- to late-1960s, in a very Jean Shrimpton-esque style. No one wore that shade of lipstick in 1962. But I like being married to a supermodel.  I also admired the make-up tech's toolbox. There is something very moving and aesthetically exciting about the way professionals in any field arrange their tools.


Sweater. Cap.  I looked like one of the old Irish sports I used to see at the Wonderland track in Boston, weekday afternoons, betting on the ponies.

1 comment:

  1. My spouse would like me to be an LLBean model,her friends say I have the look. The 'look' has worked in the past as I have been in a number of commercials and photo shoots on P.E.I.,even on set with Ellen Page(superb actor)My favorite was standing out in a very large field of barley with the sea in the distance for a cheerios commercial.Someone snapped a shot of this scene with an elaborate ARRI film camera with operator and gloved grip on track in the forground.This is now antique as almost no one uses a film camera any more. Most of my work was for P.E.I. tourism which was huge fun,but pretty well all digitally shot,yours,P

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