We spent the final three days of our journey in New Orleans. As we arrived, we found miserable weather awaiting us – leaden skies, light drizzle, and chilling wind. I looked for opportunities to use the adverse conditions to my advantage, and this image provided one of them. The centerpiece of Jackson Square, at the historic heart of the city, is a heroic equestrian statue of Andrew Jackson, who defeated the British army at the Battle of New Orleans in 1814. The light was absolutely flat, so I fragmented the image into thousands of tiny pieces by photographing the upper half of the statue through one of the trees surround the square. By focusing on its bare branches, I throw both rider and horse into ghostly soft focus. A cluster of tiny dead leaves is sharply visible on the soft statue in the background. Blended leaves, rider, and horse speak of the faded glory of the past, which is what I intended both Jackson Square and its statue to symbolize.