Fernbank Forest
Fernbank Forest – Designed By Nature
Photographs By: Peter Essick
Fernbank Museum of Natural History
767 Clifton Rd, Atlanta 30307
This exhibition highlights the unique beauty and design of Fernbank Forest. While still images, in a larger sense, they are scenes from a motion picture – one 300 years in the making. This old-growth urban forest is an ecological island surrounded by nearly six million people – one designed by nature with all life in constant motion seeking equilibrium. Trees, streams, plants and wildlife guided by the same design principles as the humans and technology in the larger environment.
The Democratic Forest
The natural world has always drawn me in and never seems to disappoint. The rewards for me as a photographer have been more than a lifetime’s supply of subject matter and the unique personal enjoyment that comes from spending extended time in natural environments.
Like many other nature photographers, I longed to visit the famous parks and preserves – Yosemite, Yellowstone, Patagonia to name just a few. They offer classic vistas, high mountains, dramatic waterfalls, and unspoiled wilderness in abundance. The lure is almost magnetic, even though these once-sacred and wild areas have become increasingly overcrowded and over photographed.
Why then continue to trek to the well-known spots, bypassing less-visited parks and urban green spaces? The reason I believe is that much of nature photography and journalism remains focused on documenting the extremes – the largest, tallest, fastest. People seem to believe that the major national parks are more important to document than an urban natural area close to home.
When I was asked to consider Fernbank Forest, I thought I might have difficulty making photos of this in-town locale. Fernbank Forest seemed more like a park than a functioning old-growth forest ecosystem. When I first started the commission, the forest floor was covered with invasive English Ivy. I soon learned that Fernbank was indeed a special place. It just took a little time to reveal itself.
I started going to the forest early in the morning to capture sunrise. Looking east, the leaves of the old-growth oaks, beeches and tulip poplars shined in the backlight. By fall, the cool mornings, combined with yellow and orange leaves, created varied visual possibilities. A clear morning after a rain was the best of all, with saturated colors and water on the leaves and trees.
Winter did not bring much snow, but brought ice and beautiful stark qualities to the forest. On some winter mornings, the sunrise light bouncing off the natural designs of the tree branches made me feel I was in a museum or a theater with state-of-the-art lighting effects. But it was just another day in woods.
This past year I started using a drone for photographic access to the tree canopy in different seasons. It is awesome to see trees from above that you have come to know only from below. The spring wildflowers were special, and more plentiful with removal of the invasive species that had been holding them back.
The great southern photographer William Eggleston said, “ You can take a good photograph of anything. A bad one, too.“ He called this approach a democratic way of seeing, a notion that no subject matter was more or less important than any other.
Eggleston’s philosophy was an influence that made me realize Fernbank Forest was a worthy subject. For me, this forest showcases a world of urban nature that we can all appreciate on our own terms. That is the true meaning of a democratic forest.
– Peter Essick, Photographer
Below is a video by Peter Essick of the Fernbank Forest
Runtime: 3:29
