Organic Impressions began to connect to some of the trees in my study that were fenced off due to conservation practices that restricted access to them. Beginning with a workshop by the camera-less photographic artist, Hannah Fletcher, I learned how to incorporate the use of soil into the process of photographic image-making, specifically through the use of chromatographs — a process combining the scientific process of separating out components in a mixture, typically with inks and dyes, together with photosensitive solution.
Building upon this foundation, I began a series of experiments that use soil collected from the roots of several heritage trees in my study and moved away from the filtering of soil solution, towards making prints by painting soil solution onto the surface of treated paper, capturing a bark-like effect in the process. These have resulted in a series of works I’ve called Chthonotypes (kuh-thon-o-types), a word combining the photographic term anthotype (a method of print-making through the use of photosensitive chemicals within flowers, anthos being the Greek for flower, and týpos being the Greek for imprint) and the Greek word for soil, khthon. As the chemical and physical structure of soil is a result of both the independent tree and its collective community, the prints that emerge act as a kind of fingerprint of the tree and its environment, as well as being representative of its particular chemical make-up and soil type.
The series acts as an abstract counter to the more literal Arboreal Encounters, building upon photographic methods that utilise elements of the oak tree’s materiality within the creative process. In part, these images intend to visualise a far more plant-oriented perspective of life underneath the soil, as opposed to the more commonly held relationships humans have with trees above ground.
As the project has grown Organic Impressions has come to encompass different forms of photographic engagement with oak trees that all focus on visualising and using as both subject and material, the roots and soil of oak trees.
Untitled, Chthonotype I, Queen Elizabeth I Oak. Soil collected from the landscape of Queen Elizabeth I Oak, mixed with silver nitrate and exposed on A5 watercolour paper, from the project ‘Organic Impressions’, 2021.
Untitled, Root Cyanotype IV. Roots collected from the lower trunk of a living oak sapling. Mounted 4.5 x 7cm (approx.) print on watercolour, from the project ‘Organic Impressions’, 2023.
Below are two photographs detailing the process of re-potting an oak sapling growing in my parents garden since 2018. When the creative interests of the PhD began to focus more clearly on the oak tree as a subject and symbol, my mother dug a seedling up from a flower bed in the front-garden which had self-seeded from a neighbouring mature oak tree. Kept a secret for a year and a half before I moved home, it has been potted up and nurtured with the intention of it being gifted to me once the PhD was complete and I had the space in which to receive it.
Inspired by the work of critical plant-studies scholar Prudence Gibson, philosopher Emanuele Coccia, botanist Stefano Mancuso and evolutionary ecologist Monica Gagliano, to name just a few, an interest in the display of an oak tree as a physical presence within an exhibition space alongside representations of its genus through pictures, took hold. To put this idea into practice, the oak seedling (now a more established sapling) was potted up into a glass bowl to display its roots and soil; exposing its underground world. The images below not only detail this process but act as stand-alone still lifes.
Soil Bound, Still life of an oak tree sapling, Thorngrafton, Kings Caple. Digital photograph from the project ‘Organic Impressions’, 2022.
Root Reveal, Still life of an oak tree sapling, Thorngrafton, Kings Caple. Digital photograph from the project ‘Organic Impressions’, 2022.
In 2022, after de-installing the show ‘Photosymbiosis’ at ONCA Gallery, Brighton, my first solo show depicting work-in-progress from the PhD of the same name, my step-father and I went to visit an oak tree he’d planted in his parents back garden when he was just seven years old. As it happened, the take down of the exhibition happened to serendipitously coincide with the first year the oak produced acorns. During our time there we collected a handful to take back home with the intention of propagating them, however unfortunately none of them managed to root. Another batch, however, was set up from Epsom, Surrey, by my step-grandfather, Ron, one of which was successfully propagated and is depicted here to the right of this text.
‘Still life of an oak tree seedling’ is an enduring example of the ways in which national heritage and family heritage can collide, often informing, engaging with and elevating each other. The stories humans share with the natural world however simple or complex, personal or global, play a significant part in what binds the emotional and physical relations shared between them. Much like ‘Son of Royal Oak’ is dually imbued with its own material significance as well as the memories and association of the lost parent tree that gave it its name, this seedling is a shared record of itself, my step-father’s personal life, and the life of the parent tree.
Still life of an oak tree seedling, Kington, Herefordshire. Digital photograph from the project ‘Organic Impressions’, 2023.
Untitled, Root Cyanotype II. Roots collected from the lower trunk of a living oak sapling. Mounted 4.5 x 7cm (approx.) print on watercolour, from the project ‘Organic Impressions’, 2023.
Untitled, Chthonotype II, Queen Elizabeth I Oak. Soil collected from the landscape of Queen Elizabeth I Oak, mixed with silver nitrate and exposed on A5 watercolour paper, from the project ‘Organic Impressions’, 2021.
Photograph detailing the installation of Roots: A Creative Journey of Discovery with England’s Ancient Oak Trees, a work-in-progress exhibition bringing together five years work of research and creative practice from my practice-based PhD of the same name, held at The Artery Studios, Worcester, 2023. Displayed are four images, Root Reveal in the centre left, a photograph documenting the re-potting of an oak sapling, bracketed by three framed untitled soil anthotypes.