Traces takes us on a journey to the walnut forests of Kyrgyzstan; to the twisting tree-roots of Angkor Wat; to the chewing gum trees of Mexico; to the ancient olive trees of the Mediterranean littoral; and home to some of the oldest trees in England and Wales. It ends on a high note, the promise of revival for the elm tree in Europe, and the ash tree in Britain. For Stuart Franklin, landscape and memory combine as a means of seeing and documenting the world. Here the emphasis is on trees. Their presence (or absence) can rarely be separated from human history and human intervention. Franklin explores that hybrid space between nature and society, and between nature and memory. The photographs gaze out at the sublime and sometimes haunting landscape, and inwards to memories that the strange, crooked forms evoke and recapture. Franklin introduces the work in an extended essay and there are supporting texts by the British sculptor, David Nash and the Senior Curator in Photography at the Victoria and Albert Museum, Martin Barnes.
