SOPHIE T. LOVFF
Nothing is Stirring
“I made this series because I was interested in trees being lit up at night. I would drive around the Northeast and search for the brightest lights and photograph the surrounding foliage. Many times, the plants and trees were the only things lit by these very powerful and carefully placed light sources. I thought it was a strange use of energy, and wondered if it kept the trees awake, while at the same time exposing a latent fear of the dark.” —Sophie T. Lvoff
Sophie T. Lvoff’s ‘Nothing is Stirring’ was featured in reGeneration 2: Tomorrow’s Photographers Today, the second book in Aperture’s series shining a spotlight on the next generation’s rising stars. In the Nothing is Stirring series, Lvoff focuses her camera on trees, which she observes at night under artificial light. Through her work without colour, Lvoff manages to give an impression of suspended time. This image of a birch forest evokes the Russian light described by Leo Tolstoy, who is in fact her ancestor.
Sophie T. Lvoff (born in New York, 1986) graduated from Tisch School of Arts in 2008. She has participated in exhibitions in both the U.S. and in Germany. Her work is held in the collections of the Musée d’Elysée, Lausanne, Switzerland; Michaelis School of Fine Arts, Cape Town, South Aftrica; and the Leo Tolstoy Museum, Tula, Russia.