Botanical Photographer - Sedric Pollet

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-17 17:22

More than ten years ago, photographer and landscape architect Cedric Pollet became interested in photographing bark. Taking pictures of trees, he visited hundreds of botanical gardens, forests and parks. Now in his collection there are more than twenty thousand photographs covering about five hundred species of trees. But, not every picture lends itself to artistic processing, but only a few dozen, which Cedric considered the most interesting to the viewer.

With his work, Pollett travels around Europe organizing exhibitions and conferences on bark. “For those who know how to look, the bark can surprise and inspire with its diversity,” says the photographer. Orlando-based weaving mill designers agree, as Pollet's photographs inspired them to create a series of scarves that replicate tree bark patterns. The jeweler Felicie, creating jewelry, also takes new ideas from Pollet's book on tree bark.

Since childhood, Cedric was drawn to nature, so he entered the Faculty of Landscape Design at the famous Agricultural University in England, although his hometown is Nice (France). While still a student, Cedric first photographed the bark, later he faced the problem of identifying trees. He was amazed at how little attention, in scientific circles, was given to such an important part of the tree as the bark. This interest laid the foundation for his work, which, after several years, resulted in the publication of Cedric Pollet's book "Bark: Close-up of Trees of the World".

In search of interesting trees, Cedric traveled to more than thirty countries. For example, a picture of the Alluaudia tree was taken in Monaco, although the homeland of this species is the island of Madagascar, but because of its decorative value it is often planted in parks in other countries.

The trunk and branches of the cotton tree are covered with large sharp thorns, which is probably why the Maya tribes considered it sacred. The gray maple is not a sacred symbol of ancient peoples, but it is equally popular among landscape designers. Its popularity is brought by its amazing bark, which constantly exfoliates in thin films similar to tissue paper, hence the second name of the tree - paperbar (paper bark).

Cedric: "I decided to open people's eyes to how varied the bark of trees can be, what amazing colors nature has managed to combine!" And in fact, looking at the motley bark of the rainbow eucalyptus, it seems that the photograph has been processed, but everything is much simpler: aging the bark changes its color from green to crimson, after which it peels off and a fresh strip appears in its place.