Ancient Wood


  • Photographer
    Steve Engelmann
  • Prize
    Honorable Mention
  • Date of Photograph
    2014
  • Technical Info
    Silver Gelatin Print

Images were created in a traditional wet darkroom from two negative - the detail from a Bristlecone Pine and a human form.

Story

Somewhere buried deep within our DNA linger remnants of our pre-human biological ancestors. My series, Ancient Wood, began with a walk through the Methuselah Grove in the White Mountains of eastern California where the world’s oldest living trees anchor themselves to the gravely dolomite. The twisted heartwood of the trees evoke the molecular structure of the double-helix while at the same time taking the feminine form.

Not unlike our DNA code, the alternating light and dark lines of tree rings resemble the digital secret of product bar codes. The tree rings of Bristlecone Pines have been used to reconstruct accurate histories of our past climate dating back over 10,000 years. In the constructed environment of our modern world, many of us have denied that we are part of the natural world. This perceptual disconnect between humans and nature underlies a range of pressing issues from spiritual, psychological, societal, economic and clearly environmental. The Ancient Wood series illustrates the link between the unspoken organic code and the modern being.

The gelatin silver prints for the series were created in a traditional wet darkroom aligning the negative of a body with the detail of a Bristlecone Pine. Each image has a compliment with either a positive or negative background. The models were posed to emphasize the similarity of line, shape and form.

In the digital age of zeros and ones I feel it is of value to not ignore the primordial whisper that tells us to walk among the trees.

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