Changing Forests
9-23-2002: Canyon Live Oak, Springville, California
Largest individual of its species in U.S. (2002)
10-25-2002: Tanglewood Eastern White Pine, Lenox, Massachusetts
This tree is believed to have germinated around 1820 when Massachusetts was at its point of maximum deforestation.
4-12-2001: American Beech, Waynesville, North Carolina
Exceptional view of subterranean anatomy created by hogs rooting around the tree and eroding the soil.
4-7-2001 & 4-22-2001: Plains Cottonwood, Boulder, Colorado
In springtime transition.
11-30-2000: Lignumvitae, Key West, Florida
Last vestige of old-growth forest in Florida Keys.
11-9-1998: American Beech, Lothian, Maryland
Largest individual of its species in U.S. (1998)
11-9-1998: American Beech, Lothian, Maryland
10-19-2000: Fremont Cottonwood, Patagonia, Arizona
Largest individual of its species in U.S. (2000). Its trunk is 42 feet in circumference.
4-17-2002: General Sherman Giant Sequoia, Sequoia Kings Canyon National Park, California
Largest single living organism on earth, 27.1 feet in diameter, 274 feet tall (2002).
11-7-2000: American Elm, Buckley, Michigan
Largest individual of its species in U.S. (2000). The tree succumbed to Dutch elm disease two years later.
2-1-2001: Nolan Creek Cedar, Western Redcedar, Olympic Peninsula, Washington
Roughly 2000 years old. This cedar was spared by logging crews when it turned out to be the largest of its species.
12-1-2000: Button-Mangrove, West Palm Beach, Florida
Largest individual of its species in U.S. (2000)
12-2-1998: Texas Live Oak, Rio Frio, Texas
Largest individual of its species in U.S. (1998). Thought to be over 900 years old.
10-28-1998: Intermountain Bristlecone Pine, White Mountains, California
Oldest single living organism on earth, 4000+ years old (1998)
2-3-2001: Kalaloch Cedar, Western Redcedar, Olympic Peninsula, Washington
This tree was the national champion from 1955 until 1977.
12-2-1998: Texas Live Oak, Rio Frio, Texas
Largest individual of its species in U.S. (1998). Thought to be over 900 years old.
4-13-2001: Redbud, Maggie Valley, North Carolina
4-18-2001: “Angel Oak,†Johns Island, South Carolina
One of the largest individuals of its species in U.S., 1000+ years old (2001)
10-23-2002: Granby Oak, White Oak, Granby, Connecticut
Second largest oak in New England (2002). Sprouted around the time of English colonization.
9-27-2002: Valley Oak, Covelo, California
Largest individual of its species in U.S. (2002)
Changing Forests: 1998-2004
A quest to photograph North America's largest, oldest, and strongest trees, plus a glorious obsession with old growth forests combined to occupy six years of James' life, resulting in the publication of Tree: A New Vision of the American Forest (2004). At first, he built enormous portrait studios beneath the canopies of the forest. Beginning in 2000 he invented a method to photograph the tallest, 300 plus-foot trees in segments from top to bottom; then composite these segments into portraits, showing the entire tree for the first time. These images stand as an artistic and symbolic reassembling of the continent's long-lost primeval forests. Across the globe, the planet's original tree cover has been altered so dramatically that we no longer remember what made nature natural.