Boring Postcards 2

Images from the Edge of the Forest

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By Keith Beven | April 13, 2025

Keith Beven

Keith Beven is Emeritus Professor of Hydrology at Lancaster University where he has worked for over 30 years. He has published many academic papers and books on the study and computer modelling of hydrological processes. Since the 1990s he has used mostly 120 film cameras, from 6x6 to 6x17, and more recently Fuji X cameras when travelling light.

He has recently produced a second book of images of water called “Panta Rhei – Everything Flows” in support of the charity WaterAid that can be ordered from his website.

mallerstangmagic.co.uk

I’ll declare an interest upfront: I like trees. Trees do good stuff for our environment, they lock up carbon, improve air quality, prettify our towns and cities, and support a myriad of animal and insect life. They also provide building materials, heat our homes and provide the paper for our books and currency… Without wood we would have no Stradivarius violins and cellos, and a host of other instruments. Many of our first infant sleeps are in wooden cots, and our final long sleep is in a wooden box. That’s why I like wood. And trees. And after five years apprenticeship, became a carpenter.” ~John McPherson, 2013¹

If you go back through the more than 300 issues of On Landscape (and the various volumes of the Natural Landscape Photography Award and Landscape Photographer of the Year), there are really rather a lot of images of trees². Some highlights include the Eden valley trees in mist by Mark Littlejohn³; the images of the Fontainebleau forest by Francesco Carovillano⁴; the forests of the Taunus Mountains by Xavier Arnau Bofarull⁵; articles on the Scots Pine, Birch and Rowan trees by Tim Parkin himself⁶; the winter trees of Zion by Wayne Bingham⁷; and many others. Trees are also a frequently recurring subject in the 4x4 series; evidently, they are a pretty popular subject for many landscape photographers.

Looking more widely, photographic images of trees have a long history. A 2018 Exhibition at the V&A Museum in London (Into the Woods: Trees in Photography) was held to mark the 800th anniversary of the Charter of the Forest sealed in 1217 by King Henry III that restored access to forest lands that had been previously used exclusively as Royal Hunting Grounds⁸. The book of the exhibition⁹ provides a useful survey of images of trees from the very earliest days of photography. As early as 1857 the V&A staff photographer, Charles Thurston Thompson (1816-1868), was sent by the Director of the Museum, Henry Cole, to record images of the trees on his estate at Albury Park in Surrey. In the 1860’s Edward Fox (1823-1899) had been taking pictures of trees from the same point in different seasons. A catalogue of 183 images of different species of trees taken by Henry Irving¹⁰ were purchased by the V&A between 1899-1905. Such images were sold and made available in the V&A Library as a resource for artists, providing a basis for realistic illustrations. In France, the celebrated photographer Gustav le Gray (1820-1884) took images of trees at Fontainebleau¹¹ as well as his well-known seascapes. As photography struggled to be recognised as an art form, the pictorialists (such as Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, C. H. White, A.L. Coburn, and William A. Cadby) often made extensive use of dark masses of trees and woods in their work.

Gustave le Gray, Oak Tree and Rocks, Forest of Fontainebleau, (1849-52) ¹²

Some trees have inevitably become somewhat stereotyped as images: the cherry blossoms in Japan¹³; the tunnel of twisted beech trees at Stranocum in County Antrim¹⁴; the dead black trees backed by immense sand dunes at Deadvlei in Namibia; the minimalism of winter trees standing in snow¹⁵; the ancient bristlecone pine trees in the White Mountains of California with trees up to 5000 years old¹⁶.

Those are still not the oldest trees, however. It is estimated that the Pando grove of quaking aspens in Utah may be more than 9000 years old. This is also thought to be the world’s largest tree in that it consists of about 47000 male clonal stems with a shared root systems and covering an area of about 43 ha¹⁷.

Those are still not the oldest trees, however. It is estimated that the Pando grove of quaking aspens in Utah may be more than 9000 years old. This is also thought to be the world’s largest tree in that it consists of about 47000 male clonal stems with a shared root systems and covering an area of about 43 ha¹⁷. The UK's oldest tree is thought to be the Fortingall Yew in Scotland, though the estimates of its age range from 1500 to 9,000 years¹⁹.

And talking of stereotypes, there are also the widely reproduced autumn/fall colours of the Aspens, particularly in Colorado and California¹⁸. Well-known Aspen photographers include Ansel Adams and John Sexton (in monochrome ) and Christopher Burkett and Peter Lik (in colour²⁰) and, more recently, the On Landscape contributors Matt Payne²¹ and Charlotte Gibb²². There is also a recent Kozu book by Adam Gibb entitled Aspen²³. The theme is so popular that guides to the best Aspen sites in Colorado and other states can be found on the Internet²⁴. Back in the UK, books can be found describing exceptional trees²⁵ as well as species guides. There is also, it seems, an award for tree of the year²⁶.

The Skipinnish Oak, near Lochabar in Scotland, UK Tree of the Year 2024

Much has been written on the composition of taking images of trees. This requires reducing the three dimensional complexity of a tree or groups of trees to something that creates interest in 2 dimensions. Notable articles include those by Tim Parkin and Dav Thomas²⁷ (who also produced the book With Trees²⁸).

Much has been written on the composition of taking images of trees. This requires reducing the three dimensional complexity of a tree or groups of trees to something that creates interest in 2 dimensions.

It helps to have not too much sun, so as to avoid too much contrast, and some mist in the background to make the foreground trees stand out more, apart from that it seems that pretty well anything goes.

This can be seen in the works of single photographers, such as Lee Friedlander in his (monochrome) images in the books Flowers and Trees from 1981 and Frederick Law Olmstead Landscapes in 2008²⁹. While known for his innovative framing and composition Friedlander seems to revel in the complexity of mundane “thickets”, and it is sometimes difficult to see what might have attracted his eye in some of the images. Another notable photographer to revel in the complexity of groups of trees and thickets is Jem Southam in his Painter’s Pool series³⁰.

Jen Southam, The Painter’s Pool, 03 February 2002

There are now so many images of trees as a sub-genre of landscape photography that it could be argued that they have become a little boring, even if excellently lit and excellently framed and with mist in the background. However, I am hoping that this might perhaps be another example of how images that to many people would be seen individually as boring postcards might become more interesting as a series (see my first Boring Postcards article for On Landscape in Issue 316³¹). The Friedlander and Southam images are drawn from such series, even if individual prints have also been collected.

Thus, following such celebrated examples, I will take the risk of presenting another (and assuredly last!) series of Boring Postcards, this time in monochrome and taken at the edges of Swiss forests where there are often complex thickets but also areas where the trees and understory are actively managed.

There are now so many images of trees as a sub-genre of landscape photography that it could be argued that they have become a little boring, even if excellently lit and excellently framed and with mist in the background.

They are drawn from a series of images in 6x12 format, all of which have been taken while walking through the Swiss countryside, mostly in the plateau region, but also in the Jura, pre-Alps and Alps. Switzerland does not lack trees below the treeline, even in more agricultural areas.

There are many copses, woodlands and forests revealing their edges as the walker passes. This then results in a plethora of choices for such a series, and the need to decide on what makes a happy composition (especially when that mist is lacking!). In thinking about this there does not seem to be a simple answer but searching out compositions has the advantage that it can inspire focus on your surroundings as you walk³². Some have an element that stands out; others do not. Some have foreground interest and depth, others a rather flat plane. Some are rather complex, others have only relatively simple elements. It seems that indeed anything goes (or at least you can decide for yourself if any of the compositions work for you or whether, as with any collection of Boring Postcards, you just quickly swipe to the end). As before, this is only a selection of the images, more may be found here³³.