«This project is currently under the working title of Woodland and is in its very early stages of development. The British landscape once dominated by wildwood after the last ice age has since Neolithic man been subject to constant change due to the management of land and the utilisation of its resources.
Existing countryside that was once extensive forest is now predominately a mosaic of agricultural, heath and moorland with woodland covering just some 11% of the land. Even the woodland has changed and just 2% of ancient woodland (woodland that has existed since 1600AD and probably before) remains. More recently farmland practices included the removal of hedgerows, hedgerow trees and many small woodland copses as a means of expanding field sizes and the converting pasture to arable, which usually included the removal of farmland trees, has furthered the decline of the tree in the British landscape.
I wanted to produce a body of work with a very ‘English’ colour palette, colours I have known and are are familiar from childhood. This section of the work will be seasonal, ideally captured between winter and spring, not showing new life just hinting at it. The locations will be ancient woodlands, some featuring trees up to 800 years old, forms that have been hundreds of years in their founding.»
© All copyright remains with photographer Brian David Stevens