Holy Wood

Contemplation of a landscape by night, a photographic project by Isabelle Segard and Thomas Kuchel

In this collection, the photographs are taken in the middle of nature using studio lighting techniques. The subjects are trees illuminated in their environment at night. The frontal shooting, the "portraiture" of the trees and the lighting that isolates and reveals the subject, subtly transform the picture of an otherwise anonymous nature. A dreamlike space unfolds, and in front of these trees, as if raised from a sacred wood, everyone will make their own film. "Holy Wood".

These photographs are the result of various forest peregrinations. February 2014, I am looking for an unusual perspective. My idea is to make portraits of trees. I imagine using my lights as in a studio. The chosen trees are too big and the setting of a neutral background poses several problems. It's by insisting until nightfall, that the scene appears. The background is no longer lit and the lights on the trees appear. The photographs will be taken at night. The trees are chosen according to their morphology and their environment. I develop my technique and adapt the light. With the help of Isabelle, we manage to produce a whole series of tree portraits, mosaic paintings of worn and coloured leaves, a trunk under a crown with its most beautiful branches. It is a set of landscapes of which we master the secret. Places that are accessible to all but whose paths only known by us. This series of photographs will be presented under the name 'Holy Wood'. To date, Holy Wood has about twenty prints. The collection is regularly expanded with new items.

Trees give us a feeling of eternity. When you grow up around them, you don't see them grow. They seem to have been there forever, to be there forever.

« Les grands espaces » Catherine Meurice / Dargaud 2018

We present this set of photographic prints printed on baryta paper mounted in a standalone oak frame under an anti-reflective glass. The prints are numbered and limited to 5 copies.