Ancient Trees: Portraits of Time

Mesmerising black-and-white photographs of the world's most majestic ancient trees. Beth Moon's fourteen-year quest to photograph ancient trees has taken her across the United States, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. Some of her subjects grow in isolation, on remote mountainsides, private estates, or nature preserves; others maintain a proud, though often precarious, existence in the midst of civilization. All, however, share a mysterious beauty perfected by age and the power to connect us to a sense of time and nature much greater than ourselves. It is this beauty, and this power, that Moon captures in her remarkable photographs. This handsome volume presents nearly seventy of Moon's finest tree portraits as full-page duotone plates. The pictured trees include the tangled, hollow-trunked yews-some more than a thousand years old-that grow in English churchyards; the baobabs of Madagascar, called "upside-down trees" because of the curious disproportion of their giant trunks and modest branches; and the fantastical dragon's-blood trees, red-sapped and umbrella-shaped, that grow only on the island of Socotra, off the Horn of Africa. Moon's narrative captions describe the natural and cultural history of each individual tree, while Todd Forrest, vice president for horticulture and living collections at the New York Botanical Garden, provides a concise introduction to the biology and preservation of ancient trees. An essay by the critic Steven Brown defines Moon's unique place in a tradition of tree photography extending from William Henry Fox Talbot to Sally Mann, and explores the challenges and potential of the tree as a subject for art. AUTHOR: Beth Moon, a photographer based in San Francisco, makes her exhibition prints exclusively with the platinum/palladium process, which allows for the greatest possible permanence and tonal range. Moon's work has been published widely in magazines, and she is represented by galleries in the United States, Italy, Israel, Brazil, and Dubai. 70 duotone photographs

Table of Contents:
Introduction Beth Moon 7 Adapted to Endure: The Form and Function of Ancient Trees Todd Forrest 9 Plates Great Britain 17 United States 42 Israel 54 Socotra 56 Southern Africa 63 Cambodia 76 Captions 80 Eternity in Present Tense: Beth Moon and the Art of the Tree Steven Brown 97 Acknowledgments 101 Index of Trees 103

About the Author :
“Time, memory and the natural world are the central motifs that underlie the photographic work of Beth Moon. Whether she is recording majestic, ancient trees for the Portraits of Time series, or capturing our oldest and largest trees under the light of stars in the series, Diamond Nights, Moon reveals a magical and intuitive appreciation for the ways in which time, memory and nature define our understanding of man’s place in the universe.”

Moon has gained international recognition for her large-scale, richly toned platinum photographs. Since 1999, her work has appeared in more than 60 one-person and group exhibitions in the United States, Italy, England, France, Israel, Brazil, Dubai, Singapore and Malaysia, and has received critical acclaim in numerous national and international fine art publications.

Her prints are held in public collections such as The Museum of Fine Art Houston, The Cleveland Museum of Art, The Museum of Photographic Arts San Diego and the Fox Talbot Museum (UK), and The Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Bolzano, Italy.

In 2013, the first monograph of Moon's work was published by Charta Art Books in Italy. In 2014, Abbeville Press published Ancient Trees: Portraits of Time, and in 2015, Galerie Vevais, published a fine-art edition, La Langue Verte. Abbeville Press released a follow up title in 2016, Ancient Skies, Ancient Trees.

Beth studied fine art at the University of Wisconsin before moving to England, where she experimented with alternative processes and learned to print with platinum. She currently lives on the east coast outside of New York City.


Review :
“Beth Moon’s stunning images capture the power and mystery of the world’s remaining ancient trees… Beth’s portraits will surely inspire many to help those working to save these magnificent trees.” - Dr. Jane Goodall “Moon wields time as a tool. She typically photographs a tree over many sessions, ideally over several days... The platinum lends a luminous quality to the leaves—an echo of their function, to eat sunlight—and a leaden, indestructible weight to the trunks.” - Robert Moor, Sierra “Showcases towering redwoods, broccoli-shaped baobabs and gnarled trunks growing out of ancient temples.” - The Wall Street Journal “Ancient Trees: Portraits of Time is well named. One cannot look at Beth Moon's images of gnarled, overgrown trees and not feel the intrinsic gravity of time.” - Printers Row Journal, Chicago Tribune “In our age of mass species extinctions, we never know from where, if anywhere, consolation may come. Try looking at Beth Moon's new book, Ancient Trees: Portraits of Time.” - San Francisco Chronicle “Full of strangest and most magnificent trees ever.” - The Telegraph “[Moon] creates magical images that in their blacks and whites, silvers and grays, capture the marvel of arboreal forms and textures… [a] jewel of a book.” - Booklist, Starred Review “Trees are notoriously hard to photograph, but Moon captures their individuality with reverent portrayal. . . these are lavish, awe-inspiring pictures. . . Crossing with ease between realms of natural history and art, this will appeal to all with even the mildest horticultural or photographic interests.” - Library Journal “A project with weight and lasting beauty. . . Ancient Trees provides the kind of thorough and thoughtful portrait that each of these majestic long-lived survivors deserves.” - Christian Science Monitor Beth Moon will be in the upcoming HBO documentary "Trees & Other Entanglements" which premieres on 12/12/23 in the USA. - HBO on YouTube trailer