Nature makes shadows, but photographers can interpret them to express ideas of their own. After visiting the charming museum devoted to the paintings of Georgia O’Keefe, much of it done in the light and shadows of New Mexico, I felt inspired to work with the same qualities of light and shadow as they played upon the façade of the very building displaying so much of her own work. I noticed that the angle of the sun had cast a strong diagonal shadow of leaves from a nearby tree on to the museum wall. I was moved by the pattern of that shadow – it resembled, appropriately enough, the broad-brush strokes of a painter. Yet the shadow was not enough to make the image express an idea. I waited as person after person walked past or into that shadow. I wanted a perfect diagonal match, and got it with this museum visitor, as he launched a leg at the shadow in exact alignment. The photo contains four elements – the light and shadow playing on the wall, the museum sign giving the image its identity, the leafy overhanging tree, and the museum visitor. All of them work together to link O’Keefe’s legacy to her present day audience.