Awesome Deer Stand Photos From Wisconsin

Photo by Jason Vaughn

Photographer Jason Vaughn didn’t grow up with much hunting experience. So when he moved to Wisconsin and saw deer blinds in rural for the first time, he was captivated by their beauty and wanted to learn more about them. That interest has transformed into his “Hide” series, a project chronicling the setting and history behind Wisconsin’s hunting tradition, Slate.com reports.

Vaughn would drive around the state looking for blinds to photograph. During the process of seeking permission from the owner, he’d usually learn something unique about a stand’s construction or history — many are handmade and passed down among family generations.

He began working on Hide in 2011 but leukemia forced Vaughn to postpone the project. After his recovery, he says the battle helped him gain a new perspective on his work.

“I started thinking a lot about what hunters told me about building these structures to pass on to their sons. I just started thinking about my son and my legacy and what I could leave to him,” he said.

Vaughn also points out he didn’t photograph the interior of any blinds, and did most of his work in the off-season because he felt it put the blinds in better context with the environment he found them in.

“I’d seen other photographers do projects on hunting before, and they always included the kill and the gruesome aspects of it,” Vaughn said. “Ninety percent of hunting is sitting and standing quietly. I wanted to capture that element of it and not that other stuff.”