These Woods I Walk

These Woods I Walk stands as an observational landscape monograph mapping the dense, foreboding interior of the wild sub-tropical forest. Rooted within the overarching framework of the artist's monograph Terra Incognita, this continuing portfolio rejects the decorative, spectacular vistas of commercial nature photography. Instead, it offers an intimate, highly atmospheric investigation into a primordial and unyielding wilderness. Executed in a rich, dark color palette defined by deep sepia and heavy gold undertones, the compositions capture the ancient, twisting limbs of century-old branches, choking vines, and dense canopies that evoke an environment that is quietly adversarial, mysterious, and deeply spiritual. Heavily influenced by the historic lyricism of Josef Sudek and the atmospheric magic of Bill Brandt, the visual narrative alternates between grand, claustrophobic forest horizons and quiet, singular moments of decay on the floor of the subtropical basin. Highly isolated, sculptural details emerge as focal points—such as abandoned apple snail shells positioned with deliberate restraint upon the tips of primeval Cypress knees or weathered roots gripping the earth. These micro-landscapes function as small, jewel-like monuments to mortality and time, capturing a haunting, poetic stillness where the organic matter of the terroir slowly dissolves back into the shadows of the earth. This entire body of work is born from an intense, daily proximity to the environment. Living and working on a private estate where hand-cultivated tropical botanical gardens seamlessly dissolve into acres of untamed sub-tropical forest and lakefront water vaults, the artist walks these trails in a continuous, solitary ritual of observation. Mirroring Sudek’s historic methodology of obsessively documenting the changing light within his immediate surroundings, this physical connection ensures that every plate is a deep, authentic record of place and light born from a walking meditation.