We all wear masks and further mask the world around us with our preconceptions. In my work I try and strip down to the truth, one mask at a time. I create a composition with the masked elements of design, value, shape, form, texture, and line revealed by the nude. Light is an exciting entity of emotive presence.

I am constantly looking at shapes and shadows that will work with the human form. I often use a black curved chair which meets the gentle shape of the figure's shoulder and finds the echoing curve of soft hips. Shadows from a kimono play syncopated rhythms across the curves of the back.

I create this work because every body is a different landscape. The body complements our environment: the wrinkles of the mountains, the folds of the ocean waves, and the curves of sand dunes.

The feelings I strive to elicit from viewers are ones of comfort, beauty, and sensuality. In my photographs I use the body to create abstract designs, unrecognizable at first view, drawing you in physically and emotionally, while transcending the reality of merely being a well-photographed nude.

-Stephanie Hogen