The stumps

After creating my recent layered photographs I went on another walk to get new reference pictures to build work from. This area is known for its ancient oak woodlands and I was hoping the gnarly old shapes of branches and trunks would make excellent source material.

However with it being summer the trees were obviously covered with leaves and the forest floor was obscured in ferns. When layering these images the 'busyness' of the leaves acted to camouflage the layers beneath. Layering has worked best with winter photographs as they contain only the structural shapes of branches. This allows space for other layers to come through, whilst shapes within the image can stay clearly defined. I will have to return to this landscape in winter and reshoot.

Below are a selection of the images from this trip followed by later digital layering experiments.

 

Below the set is laid out to test how they might be exhibited. I favour this tight arrangement as it creates a fractured disjointed space which can be read collectively from a distance, yet close up provides enough detail for the viewer to consider each individually.  Since this photo was taken another 8 have been produced creating a set that is 5 x 8. The human scale of this arrangement allows the viewer to stand within the borders of the image immersing them within it. 

In some places the images appears to carryover onto an adjacent frames, I like how this helps the eye navigate through the larger work.