Birch Bark, Daylight Eyes

There is something distinctly unsettling about this photograph. For me, it is not the eye-like shapes, but the wrinkled, wizened skin that surrounds them. The cracking, the translucence and the freckled texture make the eyes seem like something much more real than an outline.

I struggled with this photograph for a long time, pushing my tripod legs through the brambles at the base of this tree. Up close, even a small movement changed the photograph completely. Finding a composition with daylight streaming through the scattered holes in the bark took most of 20 minutes. The day was cold and windy, so I crouched by the tree, exposing frame after frame between gusts.

This photograph has grown on me since I first processed it. At first, it seemed too simple compared to the other exposures I made. After some time with the photograph, however, I began to see the eyes – and later, I felt like they began to see me.