I love to photograph at night, using moonlight as the only light source. The quality of moonlight is different than daylight--intriguing, mysterious, and loaded with historical and artistic reference, as well as spiritual and emotional significance. From our earliest beginnings, the moon has exemplified the feminine spirit, particularly female intuition and emotions. The phases of the moon have always been associated with the cycles of birth, fullness, aging and death. Traditionally, the moon has also been a symbol of regeneration and transformation.

To me the quality of moonlight is special and deserves to be appreciated in its purest form, so I work far away from any artificial light sources. Photographing at night, with stones or rocks against the night sky, emphasizes their shapes as well as the relationship between "figure and ground," between the focal object and its surroundings. The "star trails" add the element of time. They are a visual record of how much the earth has moved during the exposure, which can be 8 minutes or more than an hour.

The otherness of stones and stars, like that of wild animals, is their deepest mystery, for they are not our products and their purposes are their own. They are the models for thinking our humbleness in the universe, and they are the key to the strangeness of ourselves.

Paul Shepard