I Am a Tree –– Part 2 extends a series of bronze-tone monochrome tree “portraits” photographer Frank Magalhaes presented five years ago in his show “I Am a Tree.”
How did his head end up, well, in the trees? Magalhaes says that one day, while he was photographing landscapes, he realized that he often included individual foreground trees to add interest to a broad vista. He found himself often more interested in the individual trees than in the landscape as a whole.
“I find it no stretch to think of a tree as a creature with a personality, something I can commune with,” Magalhaes has said. “So, in photographing an individual tree, I have come to think of the result as a portrait, much as I would with a photograph of a person.”
Magalhaes has created his tree portraits during road trips around the U.S. and Canada as well as from the local area. He says he has chosen monochrome rather than color for the portraits because he has found that by working in monochrome he can give the images the tonal diversity necessary to produce the gravitas he believes the trees deserve.
Magalhaes’ exhibit opens Friday, April 27, at Gallery 14, 14 Mercer Street, Hopewell, with a reception from 6 to 8 p.m. Meet the photographer Sunday, April 29, from 1 to 3 p.m.The exhibit runs through Sunday, May 27.
