Dazzling oak leaf prints merge science and nature

An average mature oak tree grows hundreds of thousands of leaves each year. When those leaves fall, their nutrients return to the soil to nourish the tree that grew them, as well as other living things in the forest. “They essentially eat themselves every year,” says artist Clare Hewitt. “There are these little symbiotic relationships happening between all of the forest.”

Hewitt produced these oak leaf prints over five years of regular visits to a group of trees tucked within the Birmingham Institute of Forest Research, UK. In 2019, she started spending time there after reading about an epidemic of loneliness in rural areas, suspecting the trees may hold lessons about connection and sharing resources. After enough time spent with them, “you come to know them as you would know a friend,” says Hewitt.

She wasn’t allowed to remove anything from the ecosystem, so the forest became her studio: each fallen leaf was placed on expired photo paper, then exposed to sunlight, before being returned to the oak grove. “A lot of the photographic process is a scientific process,” says Hewitt. “It’s really about time and light.”

The prints are part of a larger exhibition of Hewett’s tree art titled Everything in the Forest is the Forest, at the Impressions Gallery, Bradford, UK, until 23 August, where they appear alongside other work from the grove, including a hand-crafted, biodegradable book made with mushroom-based paper and plant-based inks.