Review: Reynaud, Francoise. The tree in photographs. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2010. Print.

This slim volume is the product of a 2011 exhibit at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.  In Focus: The Tree was jointly curated by Anne Lyden, associate curator in the Department of Photographs at the Getty Museum, and Françoise Reynaud, curator of the photographic department of the Musée Carnavalet.  Book authorship is credited to the latter as she produced the essay with which it opens. Unfortunately this is rather less a reflection on trees as it is a collection of descriptions that would have been more helpfully placed in some proximity to the images.  As designed and edited, the reader is left to flip back and forth between the essay and the plates.

According to Reynauld, the selection process was based on “the power of the image, the beauty of the compositions, the interest of the represented scene, and the quality of the original print.”  [p7]  In an article at the Getty Center’s online magazine, she writes:

I chose to emphasize how each photograph was able to convey a message. The images had to be expressions of beauty, strength, fragility, grace, grandeur, strangeness, utility, and so on. The relationship between the individual tree and the scene or the event depicted is what’s interesting to see and to understand. 

The exhibition featured only 40 images, but the book contains 81, ranging in dates from 1855 to 2009.  I was happy to find selections from Eugene Atget and William Eggleston, as well as two of the Avedon-like portraits from Myoung Ho Lee.  Most images in collection are what I consider photographs of trees.  There are a few, though, that seem to be scenes with other interesting bits including a tree or two, such as Walker Evans Trailer in a Camp 1941, Paul Strand’s New York 1916, and Josef Koudelka’s Northern Ireland 1978.

Although a bit slim in content, this is a strong selection of images representing time, place, and style.  The quality of the materials, printing, and binding are excellent.

Josef Koudelka’s Northern Ireland 1978

Walker Evans Trailer in a Camp 194

#