This is one of those woodland scenes that look like they belong in a storybook, with their otherworldly appearance. I had photographed these trees before but the background was too distracting for it to work well and so when I found fog on my hike through this mountain woodland, I was delighted to make this image of this amazing group of small gnarly grey beech trees, not yet realizing how incredibly fragile these trees actually are. This small pocket of woodland on the slopes of a mountain in France was wiped away in recent years by heavy storms and downpours and left it looking anything but enchanting. It was heartbreaking to see how all my favourite trees had collapsed in my absence of two years. It is transience that I photography, I came to realize. Scenes that are there now and that I hope will survive me, but that I fear will not. I aim to share the magic of these woodlands to hopefully install in others the same sense of wonder that I feel when looking at them. These amazing little trees, that seem to have grown without rhyme or reason (which admittedly I am very drawn to) with neon colored spring leaves attached to them...they tell a story of survival, of the magical side of reality, even though just for a moment in time
Ellen Borggreve is a landscape photographer and author of Woodscapes and Praxisbuch Wälder fotografieren, among others. She was born and raised in the woods of the Veluwe where her love for trees originated. Besides forests she also likes to photograph Dutch coastal scenes.
The focus is on tranquil scenes..
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