The Understory

The tiara was her idea. She brought it in a velvet pouch and put it on without explanation, and I understood immediately that it was not a costume but a statement. The contrast between the ornament and the setting is the kind of dissonance that makes an image worth keeping.

The dappled light through the canopy created a natural pattern across her shoulders. I shot wide open to dissolve the background into a wash of grey-green tones. The image has a fairy tale quality unusual in the Figure Study series, and I include it precisely for that reason.

This image pairs naturally with The Bark Remembers as the second environmental piece in the woodland sub-thread. The figure is not posed against nature. She is absorbed into it.