Chuck Hemard: The Pines

Highlands County, Florida, 2013 @ Chuck Hemard

I've recently started to look at trees and, in no time at all, have become increasingly fascinated by the many shapes and forms in which they happen to inhabit planet earth. Hence my interest in this tome by American photographer Chuck Hemard who, I learn from the press release, „grew up in the middle of the pine belt of southern Mississippi where as a child he would rake longleaf pine needles, collect them in wheelbarrows, and move them to the landscaping beds around his yard. The imprint of this landscape on his identity would later inform his work as a professional photographer.“

In 2010, he embarked on a seven-year photographic study of the longleaf pine trees of the Deep South and the landscape that supports them. The result you can see in this tome. I do not tire to look at these pines – I'm saying this on purpose for I do have the feeling that I'm looking at pines and not at photographs of pines. And, as is often the case when looking at photographs of nature – it is nature who is the artist, not the photographer. This is not to diminish the importance of these pics for they make it possible and thus allow me to imagine the Coastal Plain of the southeastern United States where they were taken.

For the full review, please go here