“Few people know that Britain was once a rainforest nation,” says Oxford-based photographer Joanna Vestey (b. 1972). At the end of the last Ice Age, 10,000 years ago, temperate woodland covered as much as a fifth of the UK. Vestey’s latest series unfolds amongst the fragments of these majestic places. It is made using an analogue 5×4 camera, which relies on extremely long exposures. The shortest picture took two hours to capture, and the final collection will span three days and two nights in total. “To leave the shutter open for such long periods is to give in to what the forests and the elements offer up. I must resist the urge to impose my vision, or to seek out order and structure. Instead, I find myself marvelling at their wayward entanglement.” The images are awash with wind blurs, sun bursts and water droplets – traces of time passing. What happens when we bathe analogue film sheets in the environment for hours at a time? Old-growth trees will make their mark. joannavestey.com
Image credits:
1. Joanna Vestey, Borrowdale Woods, Lake District, England (2023). From 3 Days | 2 Nights.
2. Joanna Vestey, Wistmans Wood, Devon, England (2023). From 3 Days | 2 Nights.
3. Joanna Vestey, St Nektons Glen, Cornwall, England (2023). From 3 Days | 2 Nights.
4. Joanna Vestey, Black a Thor, Devon, England (2023). From 3 Days | 2 Nights.
5. Joanna Vestey, Llyn Mair, Snowdonia, Wales (2023). From 3 Days | 2 Nights.
6. Joanna Vestey, Pontneddfechan, Powys, Wales (2023). From 3 Days | 2 Nights.
7. Joanna Vestey, Cabilla, Cornwall, England, Wales (2023). From 3 Days | 2 Nights.
