Some Kind of Love

 Some Kind of Love is a body of photographic works that documents trees that have entered into relationships with one another. It visualises the many sentient ways in which non-human entities interact and communicate with one another in ways that we are only starting to be able to understand. These images present us with examples of the astonishing things that can happen when an ecosystem is left to its own devices.

Here we see a Giant Sequoia wrapping itself around an Incense Cedar in what is called a ‘competition-symbiotic relationship’, or a relationship that is described as one where neither species draws any specific benefits from interaction. Eventually the Giant Sequoia will completely enwrap the Incense Cedar. There are images that show the various stages of inosculation: the process of a naturally occurring phenomenon where trunks, branches, or roots of two trees grow together. The term inosculation derives from Latin and can be translated as meaning “to kiss” to “touch closely” and “to union”. Here we see trees that have entered into relationships where they feed and sustain each other. Some of these relationships are mutualistic and each species reaps benefits from being in close proximity with the other. Others are non-symbiotic relationships where neither species depends on the other or symbiotic, relationships defined as complete interdependency. Finally, we see what are called ‘nurse logs’ and ‘nurse stumps’ that facilitate the growth of new seedlings, by providing water, mycorrhizae, and nutrients as they decay. With new knowledge and understanding that is currently emerging about the way trees communicate with one another, below and above ground, over the years this series of images has become re-inscribed with new meanings.