For the past year, I have been traveling across Texas photographing the base of cypress trees where the roots meet the landscape and ground themselves. Through repetition we are confronted with the personality and life of each individual. Each root buttress is unique, some with pneumatophores shooting into the air, some root systems reaching many meters from the trunk. I treated cach photograph as a portrait.
This project was born in my passion for wandering across landscapes. For walking slowly, observing every detail around me. For learning how to see the natural world. I have spent many years exploring Texas, a state spanning what scientists define as up to 14 different ecological regions. My love has grown for the unassuming beauty of this place, for people in the small towns, and for the citters hidden under rocks. I've come to ask what features defines the incredible vastness and diversity of this state? What features make the landscape that I have come to know unique?
Water defines Central Texas, percolating up through the limestone, emerging from springs, flowing through hidden canyons in the otherwise dry hill country, and completely altering the landscape. Bald cypress stand as indicators of moisture, lining the sides of these waterways which meander between the rugged limestone hills. Where there is cypress, there is water, and where there is water, there is life.
Texas has little public land, with over 93% of the state privately owned. The public land is well loved, and because of that love, it is far from wild. Most of these images show human impact and portray the trees that have stood against the changes we have made to our state. These trees stand as an indicator of resilience and persistence not only to us, but to time and all that comes with it.
Together, these images are a portrait of Texas.
