The Dark Wood Remembered

Michéla Griffith

My images combine an early love of drawing and painting with a long-standing passion for photographing the landscape. An important part of my portfolio continues to be about the interaction between water and light in, but I’m also experimenting with movement on land and even my own progress on foot through the landscape. Facebook Flickr

michelagriffith.com

After a night of snow, I was in two minds about where to go. I liked the idea of heading up to the wood to see if it had penetrated the dark plantation, but I couldn’t be sure if it would be worthwhile. The obvious choice was to head for the hills, but in the end I figured that I already had a fair few images of these under even deeper snow and wanted something more than another vista, so the wood won. Aside from the unparalleled enjoyment of spending time with trees, which feels like renewing an acquaintance with an old friend, it would give me the opportunity of looking out and upwards and a respite for my body in not working at ground level.

Climbing up the hill, the eastern face of the wood was primped, powdered and painted. I’d watched from the window the night before as sticky snow built up on the lines between the houses. Here it had adhered to every surface and every side, in contrast to the usual one dimensional skin shed by the prevailing wind. I feared it would soon melt, so explored the perimeter before venturing in, but the dry snow and the cold morning made the snow late for its inevitable appointment with the ground.