Mary Macpherson
Bent

Photospace Gallery, 21st Feb-17th March, 2014

I started photographing trees in about 2011, while completing the Old New World series. Being a person who walks down the road and sees plants (others see houses or cars or people) it seemed a thrilling idea to photograph trees - could I make images where trees were the subject of the photograph? What lay beneath the surface of the idea?

Cypresses, Dannevirke, from Bent

As I worked I became aware of how much we use wood. It seemed that one day a tree could be growing and the next - poof - split into lumber for a house or fence palings. Working with botanical ecologist Jonathan Kennett I realised how much our cultural choices have determined what the tree landscape contains, and how much of a commodity trees are. Our cities often contain beautiful tree settings, yet, if you look a little deeper, what grows in a city or the countryside may be a choice of inhabitants or councils acting on the values of the time.

Wattle tree, Auckland, from Bent

Jonathan has researched how critical trees are to human and planetary survival, and how the New Zealand’s tree landscape has often been shaped by the need to clear land for agriculture, use species for building and commerce, or plant trees that reminded northern hemisphere settlers of home.

Photographs contain their own mystery and associations. The work aims, as much as anything, to show us the trees we live with and to perhaps think about the choices that led to them being there.

The work was made between 2011 and 2013 in locations around New Zealand.
- Mary Macpherson, 2014

Slide show of selected images from Bent
Limited edition book available - Books
Photographer information - Mary Macpherson
Print sales - Works for sale
Review: Peter Ireland for EyeContact
(The body of the Bent review is near the end of this piece, which covers several other shows.)

Seat, Greytown, from Bent

Bent - limited edition hardcover version