The Bark Remembers

She arrived with the crown already in her bag, wrapped in a cloth I later noticed was the same colour as the studio wall. There was no discussion about props. She placed it on her head, adjusted the angle once, and lowered her gaze. The session had found its subject before I had finished metering.

The light was a single large source positioned high and slightly behind her, which gave the crown its dimensionality and left the left side of the frame in almost complete shadow. I chose to work with that darkness rather than fill it. The crystal necklace catches the light in a way that creates a secondary focal point below the crown, drawing the eye down through the arm and across the torso in a diagonal that echoes the Old Masters approach to directing attention within the frame.

The Bark Remembers is the most formally composed image in the Figure Study series — the one that sits closest to portraiture without becoming it. The crown is not a symbol I imposed. It arrived, and I responded. That relationship between photographer and subject, between intention and accident, is what the series has always been about.