We were fortunate enough to be gifted a poster from American photographer Mike Maple, which we have framed and featured here at our Istedgade store.
Whilst doing a little digging about the history of the poster, I came across this fantastic story of how the photo was conceived and the lengths Mike went to to capture the perfect shot.
I contacted Mike to ask him if he wouldn't mind us sharing the story.
https://www.mikemaple.com
Read here below:
I found this old poster today when cleaning my barn, and laid it out and made a copy. It was 1984 and I was commissioned to shoot an ad for Stetson. The slogan was “Never Steal A Stetson". I was given a sketch of the concept and told to go carry it out. It was to look as if a person was hanging from a tree. The ad agency wanted a mesa in the background. They thought that there would be mesas in Kansas, so that is where I flew into with my assistant and a half dozen cowboy hats. They were wrong about mesas in Kansas. I called and told them that it was flat as a pancake out here, and there were no mesas. They said keep driving west until you find one.
So we drove westward. Ending up in Tucumcari, New Mexico.
I stopped at a hardware store to get some 1x2 wood pieces to make a frame for the legs, (old pair of jeans) which would be stuffed with newspaper to fill out the legs, I had to find some kind of weights to put in the boots, in order to make the toes point downward, as (they had made me watch “Hang ‘Em High”) so I would know how a hanged man is supposed to look.
Later I am in some Kmart type store holding a cowboy boot in the fishing section, putting lead weights in the boot, and eyeballing it. A young salesclerk comes up and asks me what I am doing. I tell him the story, and he says, “What about BB’s” . Brilliant, so one carton of BB’s in each boot. Problem solved.
Later that night in a bar in Tucumcari I met these cowboys from the Bell Ranch, which was a half million acre cattle ranch north of town. They said call the manager and shoot it out here. I called and the wife of the ranch manager said come on out. She said come in the gate and drive until you see the sign that says “ranch headquarters” , make a left and you will find us down the road. I had driven about 15 miles and saw nothing, then finally the sign..."Headquarters 8 miles"…long story short, it was 25 miles from the front gate to the HQ.
They couldn't have been kinder, they gave me a 4x4, lodging in the guest house, breakfast and dinner in the bunkhouse. They also gave me a pair of old chaps, better beat up boots than the ones I had brought, and a horse. I went out and found a tree with a mesa. Hung up the prop from the tree and went back to the bunkhouse for dinner with the idea to shoot at first light next day. Well, it was the first of December and I did not account for the “frost” factor. The prop was all frosted over, boots, chaps, tree, everything. Waited for it to thaw and made pictures.
Did a first take and had the film sent to the NY lab. The ranch had an air strip, so arranged a charter to come pick up the film and take it to an awaiting courier in Albuquerque so could be placed on a commercial flight. I believe I shot a second take which was frost free with better light.
All was well, until someone at Stetson told the agency they did not like the tree. They wanted another tree. The agency said they were going to use the first take, but had to pacify the client. So off I go back to New Mexico to shoot again, this time with the copy writer who had come up with the slogan. As we are flying into Albuquerque in first week of December, all you could see was snow as we looked out the plane window. I can’t remember the name of the young writer, but he was freaking out, he said, “There's fucking snow everywhere, Danny’s (president of the agency) going to shit .“ I said, don’t worry, it will melt eventually and then I will make pictures.
On the way we stopped in a clothing store in Santa Rosa to buy some winter clothes as we were not prepared for the snow and such. We found a good bar and waited. The snow finally melted and I found a new tree and made pictures. Turns out they ended up going with the first take. The ad campaign was a success. They made a series of ads and posters which I still see from time to time faded hanging in western stores around the country. That's my Stetson story.
