'Among Trees' is a photographic journey that spans time and the continents. It is a sojourn in olive groves in Italy and palm trees on Rodeo Drive, a royal hunting forest in England and banyan groves on Maui; Louisiana live oak and Segovian pines, a hilltop shrouded in mist in China and a Christmas-lit tree on Madison Avenue.
It began for photographer Sean Kernan as an exploration of the places where the visual and the musical meet. However, he did not intend to photograph trees - he did not set out to walk purposefully throughout forests and look for interesting trees. Instead, Among Trees came out of the simple act of photographing and then looking at the pictures to answer for himself. What do I have to say?
In asking this question, the book became an exploration of the creation of art - that moment when the heart opens and the thing that emerges is better, fuller, more alive than anything the artist had in mind or could have planned. It is also a challenge to the reader to answer the question for himself or herself.
'Among Trees' conjures up all the expected pleasures of walking in the woods, the spiritual qualities of the deep forests, the quiet of Nature, and our connectedness to the basics of life. Yet it also invites us to see the unexpected and, as we become aware of it, to be somehow deepened or changed by it. Because this book is not about simply seeing pictures that are beautiful; it is also about shifting our minds and awareness to experience the world and ourselves differently.
