Books

Ancient Trees | Portraits of Time

Beth Moon’s fourteen-year quest to photograph ancient trees has taken her across the United States, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. Some of her subjects grow in isolation, on remote mountainsides, private estates, or nature preserves; others maintain a proud, though often precarious, existence in the midst of civilization. All, however, share a mysterious beauty perfected by age and the power to connect us to a sense of time and nature much greater than ourselves. It is this beauty, and this power, that Moon captures in her remarkable photographs.

PRAISE FOR ANCIENT TREES

Beth Moon’s majestic photographs of ancient trees will make you feel very, very small.  – The Huffington Post

“Ancient Trees: Portraits of Time” is well named.  One cannot look at Beth Moon’s images of gnarled, over-grown trees and not feel the intrinsic gravity of time. Moon’s photographs are almost sculptural in the way they record light as it’s filtered through branches, absorbed by dense, massive trunks.  – The Chicago Tribune

Beautiful dark twisted fantasies: the world’s most ancient trees – in pictures.  – The Guardian (UK)

In our age of mass species extinctions, we never know from where, if anywhere, consolation may come. Try looking at Beth Moon’s new book, Ancient Trees: Portraits of Time. —  San Francisco Chronicle

A project with weight and lasting beauty … Ancient Trees provides the kind of thorough and thoughtful portrait that each of these majestic long-lived survivors deserves. — Christian Science Monitor

[Moon] creates magical images that in their blacks and whites, silvers and grays, capture the marvel of arboreal forms and textures . . . [a] jewel of a book. — Booklist, Starred Review

Ancient Trees: Portraits of Time is well named. One cannot look at Beth Moon’s images of gnarled, overgrown trees and not feel the intrinsic gravity of time. — Printers Row Journal, Chicago Tribune

Showcases towering redwoods, broccoli-shaped baobabs and gnarled trunks growing out of ancient temples. — Wall Street Journal

A collection of beautiful, stoic images that feel suspended in time.  — WIRED

A gorgeous look at some of the oldest trees on earth — Slate

In our age of mass species extinctions, we never know from where, if anywhere, consolation may come. Try looking at Beth Moon’s new book, Ancient Trees: Portraits of Time. — SF Gate

Trees are notoriously hard to photograph, but Moon captures their individuality with reverent portrayals…these are lavish, awe-inspiring pictures … Crossing with ease between realms of natural history and art, this will appeal to all with even the mildest horticultural or photographic interests. — Library Journal

Full of strangest and most magnificent trees ever. — The Telegraph

The unique, timeless aesthetic of Moon’s photographs is due to the labor intensive platinum and palladium process that she uses to produce her prints, resulting in images that have incredible tonal range. With textures and details rendered dramatically in a spectrum of grays, blacks and whites, the duotone prints draw attention to the majestic power and longevity of each awe-inspiring tree. – My Modern Met

Beth Moon’s stunning images capture the power and mystery of the world’s remaining ancient trees. … Beth’s portraits will surely inspire many to help those working to save these magnificent trees. — Dr. Jane Goodall

Ancient Skies, Ancient Trees

Throughout much of the world, night skies are growing increasingly brighter, but the force that protects the remaining naturally dark sky, unpolluted by artificial light, is the same that saves its ancient trees—isolation. Staking out some of the world’s last dark places, photographer Beth Moon uses a digital camera to reveal constellations, nebulae, and the Milky Way, in rich hues that are often too faint to be seen by the naked eye. As in her acclaimed first volume, Ancient Trees: Portraits of Time, these magnificent images encounter great arboreal specimens, including baobabs, olive trees, and redwoods, in such places as South Africa, England, and California.

PRAISE FOR ANCIENT SKIES, ANCIENT TREES

Stunning photos of Africa’s oldest trees, framed by starlight, “Diamond Nights” capture the surreal beauty of ancient trees after night fall. – Smithsonian

Africa’s ancient trees, surrounded by a blanket of stars: Beth Moon’s images of ancient trees, so stunning in their stature and grandeur, straddle the line between fantasy and reality.  – Wired

“From quiver trees in the isolated deserts of Namibia to baobabs in the dry landscapes of Botswana, each portrait is a study against a night sky. Their solitary feeling reflects both their locations and their timeworn growth beneath the glow of the Milky Way.” —Hyperallergic

“The resulting images show awe-inspiring Tolkienian landscapes photographed in such sharp detail that when reproduced on the page they have the texture of oil paintings. … More than an art book for photographers or those interested in nature, Moon’s latest book will captivate all.” —Starred Review, Publishers Weekly

“Otherworldly is the best word to describe Beth Moon’s latest offering…Ancient Skies, Ancient Trees allows readers to see the world in a new light.” —BookPage

“[Opens] our eyes to the glowing universe beyond.” —San Francisco Chronicle

“There’s a haunting connection between trees and the night sky that brings a powerful charge to photographer Beth Moon’s book Ancient Skies, Ancient Trees.” —National Examiner

“An ode to trees” —Pasatiempo, Santa Fe New Mexican

“In delicately colored long-exposure images, old-growth trees frame skies that are bright with stars. From South Africa to California, Moon recorded baobabs, quiver trees, bristlecone pines, Joshua trees, sequoias and oaks, lit by the Milky Way and constellations in the Southern and Northern hemispheres.” —Photo District News

“Moon reveals a side of Earth that is majestic, awe-inspiring, and almost unbelievable … Does this sort of raw, transcendent scene really exist? Yes. Moon considers ancient, undisturbed trees the way some trekkers see the Himalayas or astronauts see outer space: Visiting these areas is to witness firsthand a world that is prehistoric, almost pre-human.” —SF Weekly

“A vivid expression of the natural world’s enduring beauty.” —Atlas Obscura

“It’s easy to feel young when you’re staring at 6,000-year-old trees set against the dreamy backdrop of billion-year-old starry skies. Maybe that’s what Beth Moon was trying to do when she went on a globetrotting quest to capture the oldest and most awesome trees on earth.” —Escapism

“In Moon’s beautiful shots, the Milky Way spills in a brilliant ripple across velvety skies.” —Entertainment Weekly

Literary Chickens

RELEASE DATE September 25, 2018

Fierce, funny, and flamboyant, fifty-two heritage-breed chickens assess the camera with a keen gaze. By focusing on the faces of her avian subjects, Beth Moon reveals them to us not just as beautiful and exotic creatures, but as individuals in their own right.

Moon’s intimate portraits capture a startling range of emotions and personalities, underscored by excerpts from literature. A martial Spanish White Face is flanked by a passage from Beowulf; a fantastical Buff-Laced Polish, by a line from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland; and a refined Blue Polish, by a character sketch from Swann’s Way.

Essays by chicken keeper and best-selling author Melissa Caughey and cultural critic Collier Brown shed additional light on this fresh and remarkable body of work, which will appeal to animal lovers and literature buffs alike.

 

La Langue Verte (The Green Language)

WERKDRUCK No. 37
Editor: Alexander Scholz

Photographs by Beth Moon
Poem by Steven Brown

Book with 20 original photographs (pigment prints)

Limited to 300 signed and numbered copies

Between Earth and Sky

Photographs by Beth Moon
Text by Beth Moon, Steven Brown and Brooks Jensen

This book presents five major series of work produced since 1999: Portraits of Time, ancient and legendary trees from around the world; Thy Kingdom Come, where totem-like beliefs connect man to animal; Odin’s Cove, a story of a pair of mated ravens in the wild; The Savage Garden, the sinister beauty of carnivorous plants, and Augurs and Soothsayers, portrait-style photographs of exotic chickens.