Trunks and Trees

As with my previous book “City Still Lives" I did not set out to make a book about trees. It happened when I realised I had a large number of photographs of trees - drawn by their calm presence and their strength, a counterpoint to the urban environment.

I had no pre-defined agenda of how trees should be portrayed. I walk a lot: through parks, through woods and the countryside. The images defined themselves through the act of walking. The framing was always triggered by a moment’s observation: a combination of things – light, then texture, presence, power, unexpected delicacy and often some anthropomorphic connection.

The well-trodden, quiet, romantic landscape is my context. And just below the level of my consciousness the influences of the painted tree as depicted in the landscapes of Poussin, Courbet, the Barbizon School, Palmer, and Paul Maitland.