Behind the Scenes: From Medford With Love
Running in our winter 2012 issue—this was easily the best (and hardest) photo shoot we’ve ever done—one day, two unique homeowners, hair, makeup, clothes, and a killer midcentury modern dwelling. Because the house was such a timepiece, we wanted to do something different here, so we had our homeowners model as spies from a 1960s James Bond-esque movie. The shot of Scarlett above ran in the magazine, but with her husband Adrian, not the cat, who, as you can see from the photo, refused to star in this particular episode. Who knew we’d needed a kitty whisperer!
The original idea for this shot was to have Adrian silhouetted in the picture window (shown above). I guess our art director Liz thought it was too creepy, so we killed the idea. Yeah, maybe a little creepy, but I still like the depth we get.
This was one of a million ideas of mine that didn’t run—a cinematic mirror shot. I still dig it, though, especially letterbox cropped. Photographer Joyce Lee and her crew did an extraordinary job capturing the look.
Our props stylist Kara Butterfield found lots of great things for the shoot like old magazines, cameras, and this strip of negatives. My dad used to shoot large format, so I get all nostalgic when I see it. Ah, film.
UPDATE: See the full magazine story online here.
