Twin Peaks Publicity – Bobby Briggs and James Hurley by Raul Vega

A few months ago, I acquired a binder of magazine and newspaper clippings from a Twin Peaks fan residing in Australia. Hidden between the cutout pages was a publicity photo of Bobby Briggs (Dana Ashbrook) and James Hurley (James Marshall) taken by award winning photographer Raul Vega for Outline Press / Austral International. It’s an image I’ve never seen in more than three decades of being a fan of David Lynch and Mark Frost’s groundbreaking show.

BOBBY BRIGGS AND JAMES HURLEY BY RAUL VEGA

This publicity photo shows Dana Ashbrook dressed as Bobby Briggs and James Marshall in his iconic James Hurley jacket. They are both standing in a field with fir trees in the distance. My gut tells me this photograph was taken near or in Franklin Canyon Park which was home to many Twin Peaks film locations throughout the series and feature film.

The original image as in terrible condition before I cleaned it up to the best of my abilities in Photoshop. The photo was glued together as there was a long strip down the left side of the page. The photo clipping may have also gotten wet as the image had ripples across most of the page. The scanner turned these ripples into stripes of yellow and blue which I tried removing. They greatly affected Bobby’s face which makes me long to find the original.

The back of this image contains a clue as to when it was published. In an interview with Gloria Estefan, she mentions touring in Australia in fall of 1991. She would later perform in Sydney on October 30, Brisbane on November 2 and Melbourne on November 4.

On the opposite page, there was a partial ad for Roger Corman’s Frankenstein Unbound on VHS. There was a “Coming Soon” mention for the home video release in the Sydney Morning Herald  on March 31, 1991. So most likely the image was published in an Australian magazine between January to March 1991.

Australia’s Channel 10 began airing Twin Peaks at 8:30 p.m. on Monday, February 18 and Tuesday, February 19, 1991. According to “Ratings Report” in The Age from February 21, 1991, Twin Peaks was well received: “Ten’s Twin Peaks was received enthusiastically by Melbourne viewers peaking at 30 on its first two nights.” This could explain why this image was included in an Australian magazine around this time as folks couldn’t get enough of the groundbreaking American series.

WHO IS RAUL VEGA?

A native of California, Raúl Vega attended California Polytechnic State University in, San Luis Obispo, California and the University of Florence, majoring in Architecture.

He turned to photographer following college where his award-winning photos have been published in numerous magazines such as Time, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, Vogue, InStyle, and Glamour. Raul has photographed many musicians during his career including The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Dolly Parton, The Cars, Devo, David Byrne and more.

While he lived and worked in both New York and Los Angeles, he’s resided in Southern California since 2001. He has also taught Otis College of Art & Design beginning in 2010 and teaches photography to children in both elementary and high school.

He also photographed Sheryl Lee for Esquire Magazine in 1991 as seen in this image from The Mauve Zone.

Perhaps the original photo of Dana and James will turn up one day. For now, I love adding this unique shot to the ever-growing Twin Peaks publicity archive.