Trees: National Champions [Hardcover]

Barbara Bosworth (Author), Roger Conover (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 19, 2005

Trees capture our imagination because they are rooted solidly in the earth but point ethereally toward the sky. They occupy a dimension that has as much to do with time and patience as with place and landscape. They are vertical beings to whom we attribute qualities both divine and human. Since 1991, photographer Barbara Bosworth has been on a quest to photograph America's "champion" trees -- trees that are the biggest of their species, as recorded in the National Register of Big Trees, a list established and maintained by the nonprofit conservation organization American Forests. She has traveled down highways and up back roads, walked through forests and across clear-cut land, sometimes led by local tree enthusiasts, sometimes alone, to photograph trees that are remarkable not only for their size but for their endurance.Bosworth finds champion trees in backyards, fields, and forests, near roadways, power lines, and sidewalks. Her photographs document the trees' magnificence but also show how they are markers of a changing landscape. The yellow poplar, for example, stands on the fringes of a suburban housing development, in the center of a park for the enjoyment and relaxation of residents. The western red cedar stands alone in the middle of a clear-cut, saved from logging only because it is recorded in the Register as the biggest of its kind. The trees and their surroundings tell us about our relationship with nature and the land.Bosworth captures the ineffable grace and dignity of trees with clarity and directness: the green ash that shades a midwestern crossroads, the common pear that blooms in a Washington field, and the Florida strangler fig with its mass of entwining aerial roots. Her photographs, panoramic views taken with an 8 x 10 camera, show the immensity of the largest species and the hidden triumphs of the smallest. Some trees are dethroned each year because of sickness or destruction, but more often simpy because a new and bigger specimen is discovered; only three trees from the original Register in 1940 are still living today. Bosworth's 70 photographs of champion trees are not only a collection of tree portraits but the story of an American adventure as well.A copublication with the Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona, Tucson.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Recognizing that few plant forms inspire human emotions as viscerally as venerable old trees, Bosworth journeyed throughout the U.S. to visit individual specimens officially designated as the largest of their species by the National Register of Big Trees. Bosworth's dramatic, panoramic black-and-white photographs simultaneously document our country's evolving landscape and capture the dignity, tenacity, and singular nobility of gnarled yet graceful giants. Eloquent essays complement the stark beauty of Bosworth's photographic paean honoring individual trees' triumph over onslaughts of time and the environment. Carol Haggas
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"Barbara Bosworth's striking collection of photographs reminds us that in these days of urban sprawl and tree-killing pollution, our championship trees themselves need champions. Those who read this book will surely be moved by its extraordinary images to insist on the preservation of our national heritage of trees and forests."--Charles E. Little, author of *The Dying of the Trees* and *Discover America*

"... a subtle and complex portrait of our cultural landscape, as well as our celebrated trees." Brooklyn Botanical Garden's Plants & Gardens News

"Bosworth's dramatic, panoramic black-and-white photographs simultaneously document our country's evolving landscape and capture the dignity, tenacity, and singular nobility of gnarled yet graceful giants. Eloquent essays complement the stark beauty of Bosworth's photographic paean honoring individual trees' triumph over onslaught of time and the environment." Booklist

"The power of this book, its strange beauty, is in Ms. Bosworth's glorious photographs of the trees themselves. An aloe yucca, in Georgia, like a leggy creature out of Dr. Seuss. A Sitka spruce in Oregon, elephantine in the puny woods that surround it. A gumbo-limbo in a Florida cemetery, its wide limbs a peaceful invitation. Ms. Bosworth's art respects their integrity, even in unworthy surroundings. Let us now praise famous trees." Wall Street Journal's Weekend Edition

"These trees assert the respect they have earned by virtue of longevity, scale and beauty. Only a deadened imagination would fail to think of the many complicated lives played out beneath their boughs. We live in a society that 'grows more urban-centric by the year,' John Stilgoe writes in his afterword to this book. Bosworth's photographs remind us of the precious peace we lose by ignoring the quiet majesty that remains in rural America." Anne Tucker , Curator of Photography, Museum Of Fine Arts, Houston

"These trees assert the respect they have earned by virtue of longevity, scale, and beauty. Only a deadened imagination would fail to think of the many complicated lives played out beneath their boughs. We live in a society that 'grows more urban-centric by the year,' John Stilgoe writes in his afterword to this book. Bosworth's photographs remind us of the precious peace we lose by ignoring the quiet majesty that remains in rural America."--Anne Tucker, Curator of Photography, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: The MIT Press; First Edition edition (August 19, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0262025922
• ISBN-13: 978-0262025928
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 12.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #616,466 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful photographs!, October 18, 2005

By 

Keenan Brock "KB" (London, UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Trees: National Champions (Hardcover)

I also want to add that the reviewer who gave this book one star really seems to miss the point. If you do want full-color "calendar" photos, then, yes, this book is not for you. But if you want insightful, subtly beautiful and out of the ordinary images, take a look at "Trees: National Champions."

Bosworth's photographs are always thoughtful and often surprising--some of the "national champions" are not majestic at all, at least not as towering giants. Instead, they may seem relatively small compared to the trees of larger species that grow around them. Bosworth also shows most of the champions in their surroundings in a way that comments on the larger landscape and its human presence even as she takes individual trees as her starting point. She's a marvelous photographer, and this great series deserves a good long look.

13 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Images too small to be appreciated, December 4, 2005

By 

A. Jones - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Trees: National Champions (Hardcover)

I just received this book in the mail. I was so looking forward to taking in the images - but now I am so disappointed. First of all, I understand panoramic images have certain proportions, but when an extensive landscape photo in a book is only slightly over 4 inches in one dimension, that is just too small to be able to show all the detail to the viewer. This book would be much more successful if it were larger. Also, I am a big fan of black and white, but I did not read in any advertisement that these images were black and white. I think that should be stated, especially in nature photography since black and white film creates an entirely different product from color film. The consumer should be given the information to make their choice according to their taste. I was looking forward to comparing the different shades of green in the different varieties of trees and landscapes I would be seeing. Looking at these trees in black in white is more a study in texture, tone, and form. The trees have been abstracted for me since these images do not make me feel like "I am there" since being "there" would be in color. Also, the majority of the images all have the horizon line in the same place and the tree in the same place in the photo, as if the trees were all taken to the same studio and asked to sit in the same chair. I'm sure this perspective choice brings unity to the photo series when it is hanging on a wall, but in a book it is visually boring, page after page. I am sure I would enjoy these photos much more in person. They are just not impressive in this book.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Recommended, December 24, 2005

By 

Ron Mader "Planeta.com Founder" (Mexico) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Trees: National Champions (Hardcover)

(Planeta Journal) -- Panoramic black-and-white photographs document the authors visit to the largest of their species in the United States. The National Register of Big Trees is updated every two years. It has prompted the development of a society of "big tree hunters" who track down rumors of possible champions and to verify the size of new contenders as well as the passing of old champions.