SYLVA ('silve) [L. silva a wood, forest, woodland.] A Tree Show.
April 19 - May 31, 2003

Click here to view images from the show.

Ariel Meyerowitz Gallery is pleased to announce a group show - "SYLVA - A Tree Show" - a survey of trees in photography which includes more than 60 images spanning 1850 through 2002.

In 1850, just eleven years after the invention of photography, Gustave Le Gray was inspired to use this new medium to capture the beauty of an arbor in Le Hetre, France. More than one hundred and fifty years later, photographer Gus Powell turned his camera from the streets of New York City to the snow covered, lush green forest in Norfolk, CT. Robert Frank bore witness to Allen Ginsburg entwined in the branches of a leafless tree while Aaron Siskind studied a knotted trunk. Carleton Watkins captured mammoth Douglass Firs in Yosemite and Didier Massard constructed, in his studio, a yellow-flowering, Bonsai-like Spring perennial standing tall on an island of its own.

Trees are stimuli for climbing, for swinging from, for resting under, for creativity. Inspiration to photograph them can originate in location, a pure esthetic of design, or texture, from nostalgia, solitude, or sensations not at all distinct from prayer. The constant threats of deforestation make us all the more aware of the nourishment trees provide. This exhibition celebrates this nourishment and the gift that is their beauty.

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