Tomales Bay reaches like an outstretched arm between the shores of West Marin County and the Point Reyes National Seashore. The bay, resting quietly between the hills just north of the historic Olema Valley, is lined with tiny towns and lovely homes. One of those homes was designed as a dacha, its fence echoing the spirit of Czarist Russia. The play of sunset on this wooden fence created a work of natural art unto itself. All I had to do was to spot meter on the brightest post, drawing the ornamental fence into the light out of the dark shadows falling both on it and beyond it.

A week before I made this image, I read a quote from Paul Strand, whose own iconic image “White Fence” was a turning point in American photography. Strand said of a visit to the former Soviet Union, “I saw a fence against dark woods – it was a very special fence, containing the most amazing shapes. If I’d had my camera with me, I could have made a photograph that had something to do with Dostoevsky.” Strand went on to say that those dark woods gave him the same sort of feeling you get from reading Dostoevsky’s ‘The Idiot.’ When I saw this shadowy Russian fence on Tomales Bay, and my resulting image, I thought of what Paul Strand had said, and a chill ran down my spine.