TREE TIME

Tree Time is inspired by the million year old living fossils and endangered species, the Metasequoia glyptostroboides (Dawn Redwood). The Metasequoia glyptostroboides are currently the foundation of international climate change research. The species was thought to be extinct until 1940, when it was re-discovered in central China. The Metasequoia glyptostroboides was on the edge of extinction due to genetic bottlenecking, their isolation having weakened them near the point of collapse. 

Tree Time, a photographic documentation installation, began in the fall of 2019. I  documented over 540 separate photographic sessions of this central Ohio plantation of Metasequoia at The Dawes Arboretum. The seeds were collected for forty plus years in south central China by the first ever Sino-American tree conservation collaboration. Those seeds yielded two of the largest genetically diverse plantation of this tree species outside of China. Tree Time reveals the changes that happen naturally over time.