Some images from earlier in the year, when I began photographing trees in the landscape. I came across a number of trees which had suffered injury or disfigurement in some way or other - branches amputated or broken off, tangled up in barbed wire, initials carved in the bark. Looking out for trees with some sort of special appearance or characteristic and assigning them similar traits and feelings as human beings experience - stoicism, pain, solitude, patience, optimism, resignation, companionship, ageing - I began to see them as a metaphor for the human condition. They stand in the landscape, together or alone, young or old, healthy or diseased facing the vicissitudes of life as we do.
These initial studies were shot with the Hasselblad - I deliberately opted for a camera with a square format as I wanted the images to be considered as portraits. I was originally quite disappointed with the results using colour film - perhaps it is the fact that the overwhelming effect is of dull brown and green, but it has grown on me over the months. Black and white might be more suited to the subject matter though, accentuating the form and texture. I will need to experiment with the same shots in monochrome to compare.
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