Chevy is known as America’s car for every purse and purpose. It is a brand that speaks to generations with fine industrial design and dependability. In our digital-frenzied world where everything is a push of a button, it is reassuring to find people and the products they create that last the test of time.

Chevrolet and automotive lifestyle director Markus Esser are that unique combination. Markus understands cars and how we bond with them for all our needs in our daily routines. An expert in car photography and direction, he wanted to honor the specific forms of the 70-year-old Chevrolet Advance-Design body style (also known as Thriftmaster), used in trucks built between the years 1947-1955. With an affectionate look at vintage Chevrolet trucks that still require manual attention alongside a skilled craftsman who makes custom furniture, we get to see two vanishing breeds of American tradition — but both still reliable and still at work.

With one photo assistant who doubled as production manager and owner of Betty, a vintage red Chevrolet 3100 and part of our auto story, Markus found his perfect set in the rural beauty of the Berkshires in Massachusetts. Carpenter Wade with his loyal canine companion, makes handcrafted wooden furniture and then for a finishing touch delivers his work in Blue, a restored 1950s Chevrolet 6400. With limited time, Markus had to get all his shots in place consisting of several locations, his carpenter in the workshop and relaxing and the vintage Chevy trucks, Betty and Blue. He even found the picture to make his story run in a lovely winding road he captured from an elevated view on a ladder. Once he had all the elements in place, Markus produced a lifestyle story of New England charm with Blue in a range shot set against the beauty of a country road leading to a transcendent vanishing point.

It all looks so easy going and like a dream shoot with one tiny exception. “One million mini-bugs were covering me and my lens. I was standing on a ladder directing and beating up the bugs. My hands were rotating around me all the time,” says Markus. Ah well, almost perfect. With some real Yankee ingenuity and true grit, Markus brings us Americana all wrapped up in red, white and blue. As he says, all you need is a profession with heart, a loyal dog and a vintage car—all built to last. Vintage Chevrolet will be used for print, broadcast, video, Internet and published published in the At EdgeMicroview 59.