Clare Hewitt ©
12-month exposure of oak trees at The Birmingham Institute of Forest Research, from the series *Everything in the forest is the forest*

Words and Images by Clare Hewitt

Interview by AnnaRose Goldwitz

What made you pursue photography?

My grandmother bought me an analog camera for my 18th birthday. At that time, I went to university to study for a Law degree, but I took evening classes in Photography and fell in love with It.

How did you develop this series?

I read a government report in 2019 that said loneliness and isolation were increasing in rural areas of the UK. I was also learning that, in contrast, trees communicate and thrive in sentient communities.

I became interested in this dichotomy between the connectivity of the forest and the loneliness that was reportedly being experienced by people living in areas around the trees. I wondered, what can we learn from the unity of the forest to improve issues of loneliness in human societies?

Supported by the GRAIN Bursary Award, I gained access to a circle of 12 oak trees at The Birmingham Institute of Forest Research (BloP). BIFoR is a facility at The University of Birmingham that pioneers investigations into the impact of climate and environmental change on woodlands and trees. It's an outdoor laboratory and a fenced-off space that isn't open to the public, so I felt safe and free to be creative there.

I started visiting the trees as often as I could, and I began to think about why they are so successful at creating and nurturing a community. Trees are doing so many things right, and we've veered off on a different track somewhere along the way, so I've tried to replicate their behavior in my creative practice and my life.

When lockdown hit, I called out for people living in the area surrounding the forest and identified 14 people from 12 households who were experiencing loneliness or isolation. Every two months, I hand-delivered the equipment they needed for a series of photography workshops and taught them the techniques I was applying in the forest, including lumen printing, making anthotypes, soil chromatographs, pinhole photography, and dummy concertina books. Every other month we discussed what we'd made whilst keeping each other company. Essentially, we mirrored the behavior of the trees by being connected and caring in the stillness imposed by lockdown.

I've continued visiting the trees regularly, using various creative techniques to visualize their community and how they instinctively adapt their behavior to accommodate their changing needs, just as we need to do.

Clare Hewitt ©
Bark and a letter to the oak trees, The Birmingham Institute of Forest Research, from the series *Everything in the forest is the forest*

How did you develop the idea for the pinhole cameras and what was the main concept behind the idea? (putting them in birdhouses, etc)

I gave birth to my daughter in 2018 and began making Everything in the forest is the forest in 2019. I felt a need to be creative and an instinctive maternal need to be at home. I had been thinking a lot about Stephen Gill's The Pillar and how he'd shown us birds in their natural state by placing a motion sensor camera on a pillar and choosing not to always be physically present.

In Old Growth, Robin Wall Kimmerer wrote, 'We are not trees. We lack their stillness, their presence, the generosity that comes from spinning sunlight to sugar. To stand in stillness for centuries requires ingenuity in harnessing physical forces and genius for collaboration.' I decided to design and build 24 pinhole cameras and install them in the trees, who essentially held the cameras for me when couldn't be there.

The images created are 6-month, 12-month, and 4-year exposures. Although these are long photographic exposures, they are just heartbeats in the long lives of these oaks, which are currently around 180 years old. They would have been acorns when photography was invented.

I didn't intend for them to look like birdhouses, but they needed roofs to protect them from wet weather, and the round lenses and filters on the front resembled holes in nest boxes. I like that they ended up this way.

What challenges came up during this project?

I wanted to make Everything in the forest is the forest into a book, but I was reluctant to use paper made from trees. Oak trees don't produce anything they can't consume, so I wondered if I could produce a book that could do the same, becoming conscious of unsustainable practices often associated with photobook production, such as toxic inks, printing overseas, wasting resources, etc.

I am in the process of collaborating with paper maker, Danielle Phelps, botanical ink maker, Carolyn Morton, and book designer, Emily Macaulay of Stanley James Press, to make the work into a biodegradable photobook, supported by Arts Council England. We are developing the book with paper made from mushrooms and inks made from botanical ingredients. It will be screen-printed, and available to borrow and share in a community-driven distribution system, rather than to buy and keep.

This has been a rewarding and challenging experience. Working with natural ingredients means understanding, celebrating, and adapting to their behaviors, which is fascinating but also unpredictable and capricious. We're producing a very small print run to minimize waste and ensure we only use what we need. The book will be able to be placed back into natural environments, perhaps forests or compost heaps, to become part of the wider cycle from which it originated Through this process, we're re-examining notions of printing, binding, distributing, and consuming publications, learning from nature to craft sustainable materials, reduce waste, and establish a loan service to circulate photobooks based on nature's sharing economy.

Clare Hewitt ©
Lumen prints made by workshop participants, from the series *Everything in the forest is the forest*

Describe your creative process in one word?

Experimental.

Can you walk me through your creative process from concept to final image?

I agreed with the scientists at The Birmingham Institute of Forest Research that I wouldn't remove anything from the forest so as not to disrupt its ecosystem, so I've responded to that idea, working with and within the environment and relocating my studio there. This has encouraged me to change my practice completely. I worked with techniques that I hadn't explored before, such as building pinhole cameras to leave in the trees, lumen printing on the forest floor, visualizing root systems with a minirhizotron camera, and naturally working repetitively with seasonal changes.

For this project, I've read a lot about trees, ecology, and ecosystems as inspiration for creative ideas. For example, through Isabella Tree's Wilding, I learnt that mature oak trees produce around 700,000 leaves every year, then shed them to make mulch and eventually soil, which they use to nourish themselves and their ecosystem. There is no waste in the forest. To honour this productivity, care, and sustainability, I've created hundreds of lumen prints of oak leaves made by the 12 trees.

Although I've worked with multiple processes, they have all been inspired by reading books, observing the ecosystem, and then figuring out how I can be creative within the forest to tell these stories visually.

Clare Hewitt ©
The Peace Tree, The Birmingham Institute of Forest Research, from the series *Everything in the forest is the forest*

Clare Hewitt ©
Minirhizotron imaging at The Birmingham Institute of Forest Research, from the series *Everything in the forest is the forest*

What inspires you to pursue image-making?

I'm more interested in pursuing image-making processes than in making images. I love the uncertainty and chance involved in experimenting with processes.

Do you prefer film or digital? (or cameraless, processes?)

I prefer film, but through this work, I'm becoming much more conscious of the environmental impact of digital and analog photography, so I use them less. I'm interested in alternative processes and outcomes that are more environmentally conscious.

Of the soil chromatographs, 12-day acorn germination, leaf lumen prints, fungi, and minirhizotron imaging of roxchortizal networks underground, which process did you enjoy the most? Which process would you possibly use again for another series in the future?

I'm fascinated by the opportunity to view the world beneath the forest floor with the Minirhizotron camera.

I've also loved lumen printing on the forest floor. I have been teaching this process to children and adults in various workshops, and I'm keen to continue this in the future.

Clare Hewitt ©
6-month exposure of oak trees at The Birmingham Institute of Forest Research, from the series *Everything in the forest is the forest*

Do you have any post-processing or editing techniques that you prefer?

No, I keep post-production as minimal as possible.

Is there a selection of your work that you are most proud of?

No. For this work, I've enjoyed visualizing the forest in various ways and producing multiple outcomes within one small geographical area.

Was there one particular photographer and/or teacher who inspired you to pursue photography?

When I returned to university to study Photography, I spent lots of time in the library looking at back catalogues of magazines like Hotshoe, British Journal of Photography, Photoworks, 1000 Words, and photo books. I'd never studied photography before, and everything was new to me. There wasn't one photographer or teacher who particularly inspired me; I was just interested in learning about lots of different approaches from multiple perspectives.

Clare Hewitt ©
Oak tree and a letter to the oak trees, The Birmingham Institute of Forest Research, from the series *Everything in the forest is the forest*

What do you enjoy most about being a photographer?

The potential of photography as a medium to explore any idea that interests me.

What was the last book you read or film you saw that inspired you?

Monster directed by Kore-eda Hirokazu.

What is the best exhibition/museum you have visited recently?

Re/Sisters: A Lens on Gender and Ecology at Barbican, London.

What advice would you give to people just starting out in photography?

Research through doing and making. Welcome mistakes. Read books.

Clare Hewitt ©
Lumen print oak leaf studies, The Birmingham Institute of Forest Research, from the series *Everything in the forest is the forest*

If you could teach a one-hour class on anything, what would it be?

Recording the dawn chorus in the forest. I did this in April this year in collaboration with musician, Annie Mahtani, and it was a beautiful experience.

What is your favorite thing (podcast, album, audio book.etc.) to listen to?

Robin Wall Kimmerer reading Braiding Sweetgrass as an audiobook.

How do you take your coffee?

I don't drink coffee, but I love tea.