AUGUST 2023 · GROUNDED

A dark, wet woodland

Avon Gorge, Bristol, England

Leigh Woods is above the Avon Gorge, opposite Clifton. Ancient woodland, National Nature Reserve, ten minutes from the city centre. In August it should be bright and green. On this particular August day it was dark and wet and everything was covered in water.

Moss-covered woodland floor beneath towering ancient beech trees — Ancient canopy, closed and dark in August

— What the lens demands

I was shooting with a 35mm, which means close. No room to back up, no long views, no compositional escape. You work with what's in front of you, which on this day was the forest floor and the bark and the things growing on both.

A dry August day in Leigh Woods produces distance and light and familiar compositions.
Leigh Woods — August 2023

Young pale green oak leaf with water droplets on dark forest floor — Every surface carrying water

— The forest floor

A young pale green oak leaf, water droplets on every surface, lying against the dark forest floor. A rust-brown oak leaf with the veining lit up wet, the kind of detail that a dry day removes. The moss on the tree bases was very bright — bright in the way that wet moss is, almost luminous, the grey bark beside it almost blue.

The fallen stump near the path was draped in moss, the texture dense and various. Fungi were fruiting from a log — small, tan-coloured, in a tight cluster, appearing where the wood had gone soft. The understory was ferns and ivy, pressing into every gap, the kind of dense green that makes the woodland floor feel occupied at ground level even when the canopy is high.

Rust-brown oak leaf with detailed veining on wet forest floor — Veining lit up by wet

Weathered grey tree bark with vibrant green moss growth alongside — Almost luminous against grey bark

— Understory

The constraint sharpened the work. A dry August day in Leigh Woods produces distance and light and familiar compositions. A wet August day closes everything down to close. The 35mm had no choice and neither did I.

Cluster of small tan mushrooms fruiting from moss-covered log — Appearing where the wood had gone soft

— The constraint as method

The twisted dark branches on the forest floor, the fallen logs, the whole quiet disorder of a wood that hasn't been tidied. Not gloomy. Just dark and specific and present.