Winter Trees

BY WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS

All the complicated details

of the attiring and

the disattiring are completed!

A liquid moon

moves gently among

the long branches.

Thus having prepared their buds

against a sure winter

the wise trees

stand sleeping in the cold.

My final project was inspired by this poem and I focused on the winter trees. People often appreciate the trees in spring for their vitality, in summer for their vigor, and in fall for their beauty. But winter seems to be a season that the trees are not appreciated enough. Branches with almost no leaves are looking bare and dead. But when I look up to these branches, I see them as organic brushstrokes on the giant canvas made by the sky. Along with some power lines crossing in between branches, they form a beautiful drawing of a winter scene. The clouds in the sky are peeking through between branches, and look just like new leaves for the tree. This poem reminded me to notice the winter trees, and I found absolute beauty in them. Here I am showing you what I saw through this project.

I want to take the photos in a more surrealistic way so that they can be read as drawings. Photo shooting ideas are greatly inspired by Eliot Porter and Sue Abramson. They are both nature photographers and each taught me different things. Eliot’s photo series “The Seasons” inspired me to pay attention to the difference between seasons. Since I did our nature project in the fall, right now is a great chance to revisit the spot where I took those photos and really appreciate the power of nature and show it through my new photo series. I also learned some of the composition ideas through his works such as symmetry and diagonal. Sue Abramson is another nature photographer whose works have a strong painterly feature, where tree branches and leaves are no longer just objects of her shooting but her tool to make remarkable drawings. I tried to work with the way tree branches appear in my photos so that they can take on the role of constructing drawings.

Now enjoy these winter trees with cloud leaves!