ONE PHOTOGRAPHER. ONE IMAGE. THE STORY BEHIND THE SHOT.
I live in rural Ohio, with plenty of farms and woods. A few miles away there are several Amish farms, which I often drive or bicycle past. I’m also on the lookout for spots in this area to photograph. With this particular farm, there is a gravel road about a quarter mile from it and this location provides a good view of the farm for sunsets, and so I keep this place in mind.
One day when the snow was falling hard, and winds were whipping up, we had near whiteout conditions. I immediately thought of this place,and fortunately I got out before too much snow had accumulated so driving was not too difficult..
It was windy, cold, and snow was blowing, reducing visibility.The sky and the farmland were so white, you could hardly tell where one began and the other one ended. So I wanted to capture the essence of a winter storm in near whiteout conditions. Can a photo convey the chill seeping through your clothes, the cold, biting wind in your face? Can it convey the stark reality and isolation of living in a rural area where your only respite from these harsh conditions is a warm house and a blazing fireplace?. I was hoping to capture this in a simple photo. As a side note, my wife hates this photo, because everytime she looks at it she gets cold!
You can follow Mark’s work on foto @markarchibald