My aim with LightField was to make portraits of three tree species that are essential to the ecological, cultural, and artistic history of the Hudson River Valley. These trees are also deeply imperiled. Scientists and arborists estimate that the eastern hemlock, a foundational forest species, will be functionally extinct in less than a decade because of the woolly adelgid beetle. As temperatures warm, the beetle advances north, consuming hemlocks along the way. My diptych here at LightField is of an eastern hemlock in the gardens at Olana. It is now infested with the woolly adelgid, and under great duress.

Sarah Bird is an interdisciplinary artist whose work investigates relationships between humans and the natural world in an attempt to catalyze action to protect our planet’s precious bio-diversity. Bird’s current photographs focus on trees, elevating them to their essential place in our web of being, and revealing the beauty and biological wealth of these great protagonists of the living world. Her work is informed by Deep Ecology of the 1970s, recent scientific discoveries concerning trees’ relationships among other plant and insect species, and trees’ vital role in carbon sequestration. She is based in Brooklyn, NY and Santa Cruz, CA.

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