Isolated from his contemporaries in California, Chicago, and New York, Clarence John Laughlin developed an unusual and highly experimental approach to making photographs in his hometown of New Orleans, Louisiana. Laughlin believed that the photographer’s prerogative was not to simply document the world but to use photography as a creative tool to make poetic and conceptual statements about his or her subjects. Subsequently, he often used techniques including double exposure and collage, such as in this work, which transforms a concrete image of weathered wood into a fantastical narrative.