Hiding in Plain Sight was an exercise in patience to create. The story began in the fall of 2012 when I went to a local farm to create an environmental portrait of a writer. As we explored the location I discovered this abandoned corn crib that was constructed of wooden slats. The setting sun created an amazing pattern of light and shadow that both illuminated and obscured the view.
Thus my vision for the image was born. I love mystery in my images and rarely seek to fully display the subject. The light in corn crib created the perfect opportunity to have a nude figure hidden in plain sight.
But it was not a quick project. My first challenge was finding a model. The first model I hired never showed up. I had talked to her on the phone, exchanged emails, and we both confirmed the shoot and the plan the day before. But when the day of the shoot came, she didn’t. She didn’t show up, she didn’t call, or email, or text. In fact, we haven’t had any communication since then.
So, I hired a second model. She arrived right on time and did a wonderful job modeling. But there was another problem. By that time a number of weeks had passed and the setting sun was now directly behind a large grain silo just west of the corn crib. As soon as the shadows started to become pronounced they all just disappeared as the corn crib fell into shadow. We still got a great photo (“Celebration”) but not this one.
At that point I realized I needed to plan for the sun’s position. It turned out that there was a fairly narrow window of opportunity when the sun would set unobstructed by the silo, trees or the farm house. That left a few weeks in the spring when it would be too cold and a few weeks in the fall.
Finally in the fall of 2013, a full year later, I was able to get access to the corn crib and a clear evening. This was one of my first times working with this model but we have worked together many times since then.
I love the final result and it was worth the wait. The light reveals the shape of the corn crib while also hiding the details. Her pose is perfect, both obvious and anonymous. The S-curve of her pose created a strong contrast the to hard horizontal and diagonal lines of the barn.
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