Valentine's Day, morning. The air was cold, crisp and so dry that I felt my lens could see all the way through to the stratosphere.At magic hour, on my way to get flowers for my sweetheart, I noticed these four amazing sights as the sun hung low in the sky, angling through the upper branches.
These mature deciduous trees are near my home. Two of these pieces form a diptych: "CoExist" illustrates a peaceful relationship of the tree to the wires -- a rapprochement of the built environment and the natural world.
"AmpuTree" shows that human/natural relationship in a different light. This tree has had a limb amputated in order to make way for our crude network in the sky.
"TriAngle" combines elements of tree, wires and jet contrail in a compositionally stark portrayal.
"GangLion" reprises a theme that fascinates me: the repetition in nature of certain physical forms. I first noticed this while looking at a common garden bush after a windstorm. Its limbs had twisted into the characteristic nautilus shape of the mathematical representation known as the fibonacci series -- much like our Milky Way galaxy. In this image, the de-leaved tree shows its underlying structure to be similar to neuronal networks. I shot it backlit in order to reduce it visually to two dimensions.
Artists' statement: Trees Series, Still Photography. Roberto Mighty, 2010.
Death. Decay. Desiccation. My thoughts these days have turned to the ends of things. Our northeastern linden, elm, maple and oak trees, previously robust and fecund, appear in February to be mort. "Los arboles mueren de pie" -- the trees die on their feet.
But they are not dead. Only dormant. In this state, their stark beauty can be appreciated by those who truly love them for what they are. Keepers of life and resurrection. Superstructures for whole communities. Architecturally perfect eco-urban monoliths.
What is a tree to a squirrel? Would we even have words for that experience? These images seek to imagine that. Among other things. ###
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