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Maine in Black and White to Appear on Silver Screen

January 26, 2010 - CLINTON -- When Jeff Lucas sits down in the movie theater next weekend to watch the new release "When in Rome," he'll be paying closer attention than most moviegoers.

That's because his photographs of local wintry scenes are among the props.

Lucas, who owns Black Dog Graphics, sold four photographs for $400 apiece to Touchstone/Disney Pictures, which produced the movie opening in theaters on Friday.

"I am very excited about my images being used and appreciated by Hollywood – if any artist said otherwise they would be lying," Lucas said. "It will be seen by millions of people worldwide. And even though I will remain anonymous – in the sense that the average movie watcher will pay no attention to my work as it appears and never think of who the artist is – it will remain as one of the highlights of my photography."

The PG-13 movie stars Kristen Bell and Josh Duhamel and also features Danny DeVito and Anjelica Huston. According to the official Web site, the movie is about an ambitious young New Yorker, played by Bell, who is disillusioned with romance and takes a trip to Rome, where she "defiantly plucks magic coins from a fountain of love, inexplicably igniting the passion of those who threw them in."

Lucas, 52, said the four photos were shot in and around Clinton. The photos depict trees and sticks in snowy scenes – minimalist, abstract images that form a "visual haiku," he said.

Lucas doesn't know at what point in the movie his photos will appear, but the movie's trailer shows scenes that take place in art galleries. Touchstone officials selected the four photos themselves after looking over his Web site, Lucas said.

He attributes the Hollywood attention to "Empire Falls," a mini-series filmed in Skowhegan, Waterville and other places in 2003. At the time, Lucas had a photo showing at the Bread Box Cafe in downtown Waterville, which became a popular spot for the film's actors and crew.

"I sold work to several actors and to the art director, John Kasarda," Lucas said. "He has spread the word of my work to his associates in the world of motion picture, who continue to use my images."

In 2008, the NBC network purchased one of his images for its weekly series "Lipstick Jungle." The photo hung over the bedroom dresser of a character played by Brooke Shields.

Lucas said he's been a black-and-white photographer since age 15, and has always been fascinated by snow scenes in central Maine.

"Ice and snow live in a place that most people pass by while fighting off the cold, looking but not seeing," Lucas said. "I am intrigued by the totally insignificant short life of the ice and snow landscape."

By SCOTT MONROE, Morning Sentinel, January 25, 2010


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