More than any photograph in Sequence 10, Two Barns and Shadow carries religious symbolism. The central doorway of the large barn conveys a sense of sanctuary and congregation with its raised earth ramp, engineered specifically to gather livestock into the barn's main floor. The replaced barn doors--built of new, unblemished wood and contrasting with the shingled roof and weathered walls--enhance this effect. White photographed this scene on a late summer evening, when the stubble of a mown hayfield provided a modulated passage of gray, contrasting with the starker tones of the buildings. He was most excited by the shadow of a utility pole, reminiscent of a Byzantine or Russian Orthodox cross. In fact, White considered the appearance of this cruciform shadow as a personal revelation. In the darkroom, the photographer burned the area of the sky to darken its appearance; he also accentuated the cross by augmenting the contrast in the image.

from Acton, A History of Photography at the University of Notre Dame: Twentieth Century (Notre Dame, 2019)