(ORDO NEWS) — Trees can live for hundreds and thousands of years. Scientists have long been searching for the oldest trees in the world to understand the nature of their long life and to document. One of the seekers is photographer Beth Moon, who travels around the world and takes pictures of the oldest trees.
Beth Moon chooses trees according to three criteria: age, size and history. With the help of historical books, botanical directories, special registers and newspaper articles, she searches for long-lived trees on mountain slopes, private and protected areas.
Some tree species exist in just a few corners of the planet, and the endangered baobab is one of them. As a rule, it can be found on the island of Madagascar.
Not only the trees, but the photographs themselves look old – Moon uses the platinum-palladium print method, which was widely used back in World War I. Thus, she wants to tell about the history of not only trees and people, but also photographs.
A photographer mixes platinum and palladium with iron oxalate to form a solution that is then manually applied to paper and exposed. Metals become part of the paper, and as a result, pictures can be stored for centuries.
The printing method that Beth Moon uses, in her opinion, creates an in-depth connection between the pictures and the trees she photographs.
Moon is sure that these trees, being the oldest living monuments on Earth, have already become certain symbols and will be of increasing importance for future generations.
At a time when humanity is very concerned about the state of the environment, these, without exaggeration, to say the wonders of nature can become a real symbol of the era.
“At the sight of these trees, we begin to feel the time much stronger and develop a deep, even sometimes emotional connection with nature. We preserve this knowledge and experience, and then they become part of ourselves,” writes Moon in his book.
There is hardly a better way to preserve the memory of these monumental trees, many of which are still under threat of destruction, than to make their portraits and show them to as many people as possible.
The famous Baobab Alley in the west of Madagascar. This road, surrounded on all sides by giant baobabs, is perhaps one of the most famous baobab growth sites in the world and the most visited place in the region. Trees that are about 800 years old are the legacy of the rainforests that once boomed in the area.
—
Online:
Contact us: [email protected]
Our Standards, Terms of Use: Standard Terms And Conditions.