THE MOST ANCIENT AND MAGNIFICENT TREES FROM AROUND THE WORLD
Heart of the Dragon. Socotra, Yemen, 2010. Living up to 500 years, these bizarre trees are unique to the island of Socotra. Growing in severe conditions, the tree has raised its branches upward over time in an effort to obtain moisture from the highland mists. Once part of a vast forest, these remaining trees are now classified as endangered. BETH MOON
The Sentinels of St. Edwards. Stow-on-the-Wold, England, 2005. Planted sometime in the 18th century, these two yews are probably survivors of a celebrated, formal avenue that led to the door of the church. BETH MOON
Bowthorpe Oak Trunk. Manthorpe, England, 2002. The legendary Bowthorpe Oak with its rugged bole, gnarled branches and a great spread of crown stands in a grassy meadow behind a stone farmhouse in Bourne, Lincolnshire. BETH MOON
Avenue of the Baobabs. Elegant in shape and form, these strange and magnificent baobabs seem to rise effortlessly to heights of 98 feet, found only on the island of Madagascar. BETH MOON
Rilke's Bayon. Siem Reap, Cambodia, 2007. Buddhist temples are straddled by the immense trunks of huge ficus trees whose serpentine roots pry apart the ancient stones in a desperate journey to find soil. BETH MOON
The Great Western Red Cedar of Gelli Aur. Llandeilo, Wales, 2006. This grand multi-trunked Great Western Red Cedar is thought to have been planted in 1863. BETH MOON
Kapok Tree. Palm Beach, Florida, 2004. Kapoks of this size usually inhabitant the rain forest, but Moon found this one in Florida on a private estate, with roots that rise 12 feet above the ground. BETH MOON
The Lovers. Morondava, Madagascar, 2006. Local legend tells of a love story with an unfortunate beginning that finally resolves itself with this embracing pair, bound together for all eternity. BETH MOON
The Crowhurst Yew. Crowhurst, England, 2003. Amongst tombstones in a churchyard in Crowhurst, stands a medieval ancient yew, estimated to be over 1,500 years old. BETH MOON
Angkor Passage. Siem Reap, Cambodia, 2007. The temples of Angkor Wat in Cambodia represent one of man’s most astonishing and enduring architectural achievements. BETH MOON
Devil's Pulpit. Chepstow, Wales, 2004. This tree growing on top of a pillar of rock, must have been covered with soil at some point, but hundreds of years of wind and rain have washed away the earth, challenging this resilient yew to find creative ways to survive. BETH MOON
The Major's Oak. Edwinstowe, England, 2005. With its distinctive broad crown and imposing stature, this handsome tree has become one of the most famous oak trees in Britain. It has a girth of 33 feet, an estimated weight of 23 tons, and a probable age of 800-1,000 years. According to local folklore, Robin Hood met with his merry men under this tree, while hiding from the Sheriff of Nottingham, and slept under its boughs at night. BETH MOON
Heart of the Dragon. Socotra, Yemen, 2010. Living up to 500 years, these bizarre trees are unique to the island of Socotra. Growing in severe conditions, the tree has raised its branches upward over time in an effort to obtain moisture from the highland mists. Once part of a vast forest, these remaining trees are now classified as endangered. BETH MOON
THE BOWTHORPE OAK is a massively thick, millennium-old tree in Lincolnshire, England that once was rumored to hold three dozen people in its enormous, hollowed-out trunk. Beth Moon photographed the leafy giant some 15 years ago and was struck by its solemn nobility and overwhelming presence. Thus began a pilgrimage that would take her around the world to document the planet’s most ancient trees.
The series and corresponding photo book, Ancient Trees: Portraits of Time, is a collection of beautiful, stoic images that feel suspended in time. Though our distant ancestors left the shelter and safety of trees some 3.5 million years ago, Moon’s work points to our enduring affinity for—and exploitation of—really, really big trees.
“They’ve survived through so much—some for more than 4,000 years,” she said. “I find it hard to wrap my mind around it and I’ve been doing this work for 15 years.”
Moon shoots black and white film with a medium format Pentax camera. She then uses a labor-intensive platinum printing process that lends these images a rich tonal scale and nearly three dimensional appearance—always on the same naturally deckled, deeply textured Arche Platine paper made by a French mill since 1492. Platinum, like gold, is a stable metal. Her prints could last thousands of years, much like the ancient trees she photographs.
From Mexico to Madagascar, she came to find that trees so grand often have wonderful stories to tell—the massive trunk of the Major Oak where Robin Hood’s gang allegedly hid out; the gnarled, gothically dense Wittinghame Yew where a Scottish noble’s murder was planned in 1567; South Africa’s Sagole Big Tree where anti-apartheid fighters found shelter in the 1970s. “Everyone has a favorite tree story, and I just love to hear them,” said Moon.
Now the photographer has epic tree stories of her own. Moon tried for three years to shoot dragon’s blood tree —a wild looking thing “kind of like a gigantic umbrella blown inside out.” The tree is found only on Socotra Island, located 150 miles east of the Horn of Africa and controlled by Yemen. It was difficult to gain access. At customs and immigration, a PBS crew in line right in front of her was detained and had all its gear confiscated by Yemeni officials. Moon fortunately had a fixer with strong tribal ties help her make it through.
Socotra once had a forest of dragon’s blood trees, but aggressive goat grazing, over harvesting, and diminishing cloud cover have left only an endangered handful of these giants straddling the island’s Haghier Mountains. Socotra Islanders—mostly goat herders, date farmers, and fishers—are allowed to tap the dragon’s blood trees twice annually to collect its scarlet resin, which they use for paints, dies, and medicine. “This place is literally untouched by time and the weather is so hard—there’s these monsoon winds,” she recalled her nights camped out there. “To sleep right under these trees and take advantage of the best light, that’s something like I’ve never seen.”
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