The Trees Speak for Me
Senior Thesis (2020-2021)
Trees are a direct connection between the earth they root into and the sky they reach for. To touch them, to be surrounded by them is to be connected to nature and the Earth.
Through personal relationships with family and friends, I have learned and grown an affinity for the environment, and it has become an integral part of how I identify with the world around me.
In the past year when access to public outdoor spaces became constrained and restricted, hiking trails, beaches, and outdoor parks had been closed to the public and we were suddenly denied access to spaces that allow us to form a consistent union between ourselves and the landscape. This dependence and attachment to green spaces and objects is something that has embedded itself into my life and the life of human beings in the smallest ways. I felt most comfortable and safe in spaces of the living world, and at a time when I needed that comfort the most, I lost direct contact.
The Trees Speak for Me is a series of photographs that seek to cross the boundary of access to the environment by investigating the ecosystem and the natural cycle of growth and decay through the mediation of greenery. I seek intimacy while examining the preservation of objects and spaces that exist in environmental discourse. All in order to reconnect myself and others with the Earth.
