I am photographing local places and through routes for shoppers, places for dog walkers and teenage night drinking. They are the closest bit of nature for many but with no walking boots or Gore-Tex in sight. Signs of modern life are present in discarded detritus along well-used pathways but patches of thick undergrowth deter further invasion. There is tension between the encroaching forces of nature and man into each other’s territories. The sounds of the school and the motorway clamor for attention as well as warbling birds. A council recycling area, a cricket green, a golf course, and an area used for fly tipping.

 

Trees have roots that connect us to those who have walked by them and to those who planted them. The forest is the primal birthplace of nations, trees the material for the beginning of habitation. Our identity is created and shaped by our connection to the natural world around us, something that gets missed, forgotten in today's digital, disposable culture.

 

Enchanted forests play a role in many ancient myths and folktales and in modern fantasies from wild and dangerous parts of Oz in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, to forests representing enchantment and the ancientness of the world in the books of J.R.R. Tolkien.

 

Our woodlands have been evolving since the end of the last glaciation around 10,000 years ago, and represent one of our most important habitats for wildlife. Woodlands in Great Britain amount to about 5,000,000 acres, about 1.25% of the British Isles. A small amount of land percentage wise comprises a very high proportion of our richest wildlife habitats.

 

Each one of these woods and ancient woods has its own particular significance, and collectively they enable us to understand the complex relationships of nature between soil, climate and vegetation. They also demonstrate the pervasive influence of man upon nature over centuries.

 

2015