I just got back from shooting in Milwaukee and I found an image I’m excited about. It was a brand of image you have to be very disciplined with… One where you have to strip all the excess, and get to the core of the image. Its often tempting to pull back because there’s more to see, then you pull back even more, because everything is so interesting to look at and you want to cram it all into this one shot. But what usually happens in this case is you are stepping further and further away from the essence of the shot. And this is the big challenge: what is really the shot here?

I found a fascinating little corner in an old industrial sector. At the core was an old window, illuminated from the inside, while old rickety wooden stairs cast a striking shadow from behind. This is what first struck me. Around this were numerous amazing elements, including a window that once, long ago, had plastic sheeting for curtains. These plastic curtains had shredded with time, leaving behind a bleak and frazzled dramatic detail. The more I looked the more I saw, and I started stepping backward to capture more. I finally took a shot but I no longer felt the same initial connection with the scene. Then I realized my mistake. I changed lens, stepped closer and did a second exposure. Once again I realized I wasn’t trimming enough fat. So I stared and finally understood what the essence was… what it was that made this location so endearing (if you can call bleak endearing). I stepped much closer and took a third shot. This will be the one I print.