photo-eye | BLOG: Portfolio Profile – Beth Moon: Portraits of Time

Kapok, Platinum/Palladium Print 22x30" Image,8/25, $3,200

Portraits of Time, one of the four projects by Beth Moon in our Ancient Kingdoms exhibition, is a study of trees and time. According to Moon in her project statement, the "evidence of time is revealed in the furrowed bark of an ancient tree–gnarled, crooked, and beautiful." For Moon, Portraits of Time is a record of adaptation and appreciation referring to her tree images also as "portraits of change" and "portraits of survival." Photography is a means to preserve and share the stories of these trees, to showcase their grand and sturdy character, as well as express her affection. She states, "I am not interested in simply documenting, but instead, I try to record the passion that I feel towards the subject when I take the photograph." We find the images from Moon's Portraits of Time series simply captivating and are proud to have them included in Ancient Kingdoms.

Beth Moon: Ancient Kingdoms, is on view at photo-eye Gallery through Saturday, November 24, 2018.

Rilke's Bayon, Platinum/Palladium Print, 30x22" Image, 3/25, $3,200

"I have a great appreciation for the natural world, so perhaps it is this emotion that I am trying to capture and share. When I began to take tree portraits I consciously tried to show a pristine side of nature without any signs of man. But a year or so into the project, I realized I wasn’t telling the whole story and began to include trees that had doors that were built into the trunk or wooden props that held up ancient branches.

What I find interesting is the effect that time has on nature, be it the age of old trees, or how evolution turned a simple leaf into a container that could catch and digest insects, creating carnivorous plants. The aging process of trees is especially interesting to me. For example, trees often hollow out in old age, but then they send an aerial root down the center and the tree begins to grow from the inside out! A brilliant survival tactic.

As a child, I was outdoors from dawn until bedtime and playing in trees was a big part of my day. There were many trees in my neighborhood that were just right for climbing. They made excellent hiding places when playing hide and seek and sitting up on one of the branches was an ideal way to view what was going on below. The world can look different from that vantage point! So, trees were a natural subject choice for me, but I wanted to find the oldest ones because I was interested in their age and their strategies for survival." – Beth Moon (an excerpt from our 2018 Interview with the Artist)