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| Avenue of the Baobabs |
Beth Moon’s
father made an impression on her when he told stories about his
childhood learning the names of birds, trees, and flowers. Around 14
years ago, while living in England, she began to photograph trees,
traveling around the country in search of some of the oldest yews. She
then moved to the West Coast of the United States, adding images of
sequoias, redwoods, bristlecone pines, and Joshua trees to her
collection. She earned money by selling prints that helped further fund
trips around the world to places like South Africa, Madagascar, Yemen,
and Israel.
Those images were published by Abbeville Press last year as a book, Ancient Trees: Portraits of Time.*
Her criteria when traveling to photograph the trees are simple. She
looks for trees that are old, immense, or have a “notable” history.
Before traveling, she scouts locations by referencing both history and
science books. But even with her prep, things didn’t always go smoothly
when she got there.
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| Heart of the Dragon. |
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| Left: Bristlecone Pine in Schulman Grove. Right: Rilke’s Bayon. |
“Sometimes I would arrive only to find an obstruction in front of the
tree, or waist high grass, any number of obstacles,” she wrote via
email. “Often times it was very difficult to find them. Hard to believe!
For example, in Madagascar, I drove three hours with my guide to what I
was told was the largest baobab in the region south of Toliara. We
drove around for hours before we asked the help of a local chief of the
nearby village. He asked for the equivalent of thirty cents for his time
to show us the tree. The entire village followed, running behind the
jeep, it was quite exhilarating!”
Even when she finds the trees, things can get complicated. When she
arrived at the baobab, hundreds of bats were hanging from its branches
and a large cobra was hanging out in the grass below. She often has to
catch her breath to take in the grandeur of what she’s photographing.
“It’s hard to describe what it’s like to turn up at a location,” she
wrote. “Since a lot of anticipation goes into the journey, excitement is
inevitable. The size usually overwhelms me, there is a lot to take in. I
don’t even consider taking out equipment until I am in a state of mind
to concentrate and be able to work a camera.”
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| The Queen Elizabeth Oak |
Moon said spending 14 years working on the project was necessary
since she needs time to reflect and to delve deeper into the project.
“I don’t feel like I can get to the true essence of a project without
staying with it for a long time,” she added. She also prints the image
with platinum printing that “gives tones that range from cool black,
neutral grays, to rick sepia browns.” The printing method—Moon hand
paints a tincture onto heavy watercolor paper and exposes it to
light—dates back to the 19th century which seems appropriate since Moon has photographed trees as old as 4,000 years.
“I hope to speak about survival—not only of man and nature, but of
photography as well,” she wrote. “I wanted to use a process that would
reflect this kind of age; that could express this type of aesthetic. A
platinum print can last for centuries, drawing on the common theme of
time and continuance, pairing photographic subject and process.”
Signed copies of the book are available from Corden Potts Gallery in San Francisco. They are also showing an assortment of her work until Feb. 28.
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| Left: The Whittinghame Yew. Right: The Crowhurst Yew. |
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| Zalmon Olive Tree. |
