Masha Arms photographed Nathan Tufts (b. 1930) in his Greenfield, Massachusetts, backyard. She then printed the photograph at the summer residence she and her husband, William (Billy) Tyler Arms of Deerfield, Massachusetts, were renting in Chesterfield, New Hampshire, where there was no electricity or running water. Masha had to wash the print with water pumped from a spring in back of the house and use an enlarger powered by a converter Billy hooked up to the car battery. She describes this and the other prints she produced during this period as being truly handmade. Originally from Fitchburg, Massachusetts, Masha Arms arrived in Washington, DC, during the Great Depression. After buying a Model G Leica camera in 1934, and teaching herself about the technical aspects of photography, she landed a job teaching photography at the King-Smith Studio School in 1936. Her work was published in a 1936 Washington Post review of the Junior League Gallery exhibition alongside photographs by Ansel Adams and Margaret Bourke-White. In 1941, when the United States entered World War II, Masha left Washington, married Billy, and moved back to New England.