He Who Walks Behind the Rows

He Who Walks Behind the Rows

This image was an exercise in experimentation. As I never plan the images, or what they mean while shooting the models, this is not really unusual, but this one was literally started backwards, the environment first, then the human subject, and finally, the meaning.

The environment was based on my determination to get some shots of cornfields yesterday. I know of two somewhat nearby, but the conditions have to be just right for me to shoot them and be able to use them in my process. It must be overcast, it can't be raining. It needs to be on a flat plain of land so horizon tree lines are not in the background. Tall orders for New England - the weather is unpredictable at best, the the meteorologists are beyond useless. It seems every time I have time to shoot, it is bright and sunny.

Yesterday was perfect weather, so I headed out - only to find the farm land with the cornfield had closed the gate and restricted visitors. Eventually, with the help of my partner at the helm and his knowledge of the area (I get lost in my own town), we found a small cornfield and a farm. I ran out to snap some shots, the sky threatening accursed sun, and the first thing I saw was an ominous hawk circling over me. Stealthy, calm, effortless gliding, but a killer nonetheless. I did not have long lens or a zoom, so I took what I could and the hawk you see here is that one. The cornfield too.

Once I got home, I dove into these new things, to see what could be done with them. Cornfield, check. Nice sky, check. Then…what? A host of things came and went. Several models and shots were used and discarded. One of my favorite of my work, "Peter's Epilogue" inspired the eventual choice. It is a similar shot - Iconic, back to the camera, the bowler hat. This was one of the shots that led to earlier pieces like "Infinite Regress." So, now I had a man standing in front of the cornfield. Now what? He could be looking at all kinds of things in the sky. It was hard to resist using this type of shot many times - if I put something in the sky, around him, what have you, the symbolism is incredibly flexible. But it would be very easy to fall into a formula doing that, so I try to avoid it. There have been a few others reminiscent of "Peter's Epilogue" - "Secret Oktober" for example,

After trying a few things and rejecting them, I decided to try one of the hawk shots from earlier. I thought having the bird angled up above the man made an interesting symmetry. Okay, the hawk stays. But what does it mean? I took a break to reseach some myths and legends involving the hawk, some interesting stories - one Native American story was an origin of the Corona Borealis - a crown-like constellation in the sky. I could make stars, but the fashions of the man in the hat hardly said Native American, so it was an odd fit. To kill some time, I decided to put him IN the corn, and blend the colors so his suit and the corn stalks were nearly the same. This worked, and it reminded me at once of an ominous character from a Stephen King short story, "Children of the Corn." It was a violent beast, a strange creature lurking in the corn, controlling the children of a dusty little town. It was a dark version of Jesus, the inverse, in other words, the Devil. This creature in the story, in another form, was a dark man known as Randall Flagg.

Stephen King has made cornfields creepy for me since I was a kid. I read "Children of the Corn" when I was about 11, and "the Stand" at 12. Both featured menace in the endless rows. That is the power of fiction, when something common and ordinary can be rendered scary by a writer tapping into the collective subconscious and tapping into the core of what makes something threatening or dark. I think of King's story every time I see a cornfield. I would be completely unnerved if I were to walk in one at dusk. The devil, the beast in the story was called "He Who Walks Behind the Rows." This character, in other forms, appeared in a few other of King's stories, and always as a force of evil.

This device of crossing characters into different stories is something I'm attracted to, and have been doing with a few of my images. I get a little excited about the implications of recurrence. In this image, I am again using hawk feathers on the human subject, something I have done a few times, and this time there is a literal connection between the obscure human figure and the ascending bird of prey - a hawk has often been regarded as a symbol a evil - in Judeo-Christian folklore, the hawk is the opposite of the white dove, which is a symbol of Christ. I am also using the same model from "Peter's Epilogue" in virtually the same pose. This I enjoy - it has the potential of taking a single shot and by implication of repetition, building a mystery as to who he might be, why is he in these scenarios. What does it mean that the same character is seen in different contexts? Working with limitations or smaller palettes can be difficult, but these limitations have a way of pushing creativity too. Think of a rock band - a singer, guitar, bass, drums, keyboards - four instruments and a voice - it's a very limited orchestra, so the need for invention, for reinvention, is fueled by the limits. I needed the model shot to function differently from "Peter." In that one, he is a passive observer. In this one, there is an implied connection to the raptor in the sky, and the corn is his camouflage. He seems to have more of a purpose in this one.

So I have my cornfield, and He Who Walks Behind the Rows, who is really just a man, a dark reflection of humanity. His symbol is the hawk, hunting its prey calmly, waiting to strike. The candles denote a place of sacrifice among the stalks, an altar of the dark man in this place of secrets, rows and rows where danger may lurk, the hawk and the man both hunting its prey, one all seeing from above, one hunting the maze like rows of corn, as a brilliant Hawkmoon looms overhead.

Model: Gilberto Mendez