Hello, I’m Gill and I write a photography blog inspired by the landscapes of Suffolk and beyond. Please subscribe to read more of my writing and visit my website to view my images.
This weeks blog has been inspired by recent news, some past events and a beautiful morning in the woods.
I began writing this post a few days after the lone tree at Sycamore Gap on Hadrian’s wall was deliberately felled - a pointless act that can have no rational explanation and one that quite rightly provoked outrage. My own response was disbelief and sheer frustration that someone could do something so destructive. Amongst all the angst and anger it was heartening, in a way, to see how much people cared about what had happened and how much nature means to so many of us.
Sycamore Gap had become an iconic location and the tree one of the most photographed in the country. There are numerous images out there of the tree surrounded by colourful skies and northern lights. It was a symbol of the Northumberland National Park and one that will be sadly missed.
As photographers lone trees intrigue us. They speak to us in a way that not many other single elements do and they inspire us to create wonderful images. Lone trees make obvious subjects and allow us to create minimal compositions with clean lines and no clutter. They are enigmatic, structurally interesting, a symbol of strength and they make us question their very existence. How did they end up in this un natural state of aloneness?
Science tells us that trees are ‘social organisms’ and are more connected than appearance would have us believe.
In his book, The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate, author Peter Wohlleben likens woodlands to human societies (a notion I have explored in my book Rooted) . He describes how science has lead us to understand the idea of tree communities and how each individual specimen uses an underground fungal network to communicate with its neighbours. He explains how trees nurture their young, support them as they grow, sharing nutrients with any that are sick and struggling and even warning them of impending dangers.
When I first came across this idea I was fascinated and looked at my local woodlands with fresh eyes.
I have always loved trees for their character, their longevity and the stories that I think they would tell if only they could speak. I also love them as photographic subjects. There is so much to explore with the camera and in some ways I like the idea that I can reveal their untold stories through the pictures that I make.
Last summer I was introduced to a Black Poplar tree that is growing on a field edge a few miles from where I live. It is gnarly and characterful and I have returned several times in different seasons to photograph it.
Black Poplars were once numerous across Suffolk, but they are now one of the county’s rarest trees - there are only about 450 left here. The trees are either male or female and their scattered distribution across the county means that they haven’t reproduced naturally here for hundreds of years. Land drainage for agriculture has also changed the trees natural habitat and the species is now in serious decline throughout the UK.
This lone Black Poplar may look enigmatic but there is a reason trees grow together and it seems that in the case of the Black Poplar they need a community to reproduce and thrive.
I love photographing this tree and have used my images to tell its story in my Planet Suffolk book.
This is one of the reasons I love being a photographer, it creates opportunities to discover something new. Without venturing out with my camera I would have had no reason to stumble across this tree. I may have seen it from the road as I drove past but I wouldn’t have looked any closer, named it or read up about Black Poplars as a species and I would have been blind to its plight and poorer in knowledge generally about my local landscape.
In this case (and many others) photography has given me a better informed and more nature connected life.
This is a concept that is explored by photographer Jim Marsden who talks about life experiences as fodder for creativity. He has a thirst for knowledge and likens our brains to libraries where we store all our life experiences and accumulated information. When Jim teaches photography he hands out cards to all his workshop participants with his 8 principles of photography. This is his principle No 2
Fill your library every day, with experiences and knowledge, because this is fuel for your creative work.
This week I revised Knoddishall Common, a small area of heathland just along the coast from where I live. During the drought of 2022 it was ravaged by fire and I wanted to return to see how it was recovering.
I photographed the heath a few days after the fire when the blackness of the landscape was shocking and the acrid smell of smoke all pervading. The heath is not large and most of what had been burnt was gorse but the effects of the fire were still shocking.
Returning, just over a year later, it was heartening to see just how much nature had returned. The gnarly twisted shapes of the charred and dead gorse are still evident but the harshness is softened by new growth. The grass has returned to cover the blackened soil along with an abundance of bracken, ragwort, snapdragons and yarrow. The gorse is returning too, new shoots have sprung up around the bases of the old plants as well as in the green grassland. Speaking to a local resident it was evident that the wildlife was also coming back with sightings of deer, rabbits and foxes getting more common.
It was really heartening to see the greening of the common and the resilience of nature after such a catastrophic event. The sad thing about the Knoddishall fire was that it was started deliberately. The act intentional but the consequences made so much worse by the very dry summer.
As humans, we have such a power to destroy the things that we should be protecting, lighting fires, chopping down trees, wrecking and exploiting the environment in the name of progress. I find it all very sad and it is often difficult to stay positive about the state of the natural world and hang on to some semblance of hope for its future.
On Monday I took a walk in the woods. It was a perfectly still, misty morning and a wonderful opportunity to get out with the camera. Autumn is creeping up upon us but the days are still warm and the nights not yet cold enough to change the leaves on the trees from green to gold.
The woods are my rejuvenating space, somewhere I go to reconnect and still my ever whirling mind. On Monday I walked the edge land, the area where the woods meet the heath, where silver birch meet the carpet of now browning heather and where the bracken grows amongst the grass. The foliage was heavily laden with dew and the colours were amazing.
These are the moments I will file away in my library, moments of joy, moments of awe and moments that speak of what is really important. I will file them away but I won’t keep them locked up, I will share them with the world, because that is what producing art is all about, observing something amazing and sharing it with the world, in the hope that it can inspire others.
Sharing posts on social media, writing blogs or magazine articles, creating projects, making zines or self publishing books are all really valid ways to share what we are passionate about. I know many amateur photographers who never share their work and that is ok, but I feel it is so important to get our stories out there and show the things that we are passionate about. Story telling is part of what makes us human and to put our work out there, to influence and inspire others and help people fill their libraries with some of our knowledge and lived experience is so worthwhile. I also hope it might spread some joy and help in some small way to protect our very vulnerable and precious natural world.
I will leave you with a quote from Mary Oliver and her instructions for living a life .
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.
Thank you very much for reading and until next week enjoy your photography.
Gill
An excellent blog. Being out in nature and taking note of what is happening is good for the soul, especially if it results in finding out more about our world e.g. what was that bird or why was it doing that ?
Sometimes I think we need to ensure as photographers we don't become overly concentrated on the little rectangle of the viewfinder and ignore the greater scene around us at the time
I love this! One of the things I love best about photography is how much more observant and mindful about nature it makes me!