Some trees draw your attention with a broad crown; others hold it through a twisted trunk or branches that seem to have grown around a long history of weather. Beth Moon photographs them as individual subjects, giving each form room to speak.

Her Portraits of Time artist statement describes a project extending over more than twenty-three years. The original “fourteen years” headline captured an earlier stage of that work, not its final duration.

The umbrella-shaped crown and dense branching of a dragon’s blood tree in Beth Moon’s monochrome photograph
The umbrella-shaped crown and dense branching of a dragon’s blood tree in Beth Moon’s monochrome photograph. Gallery attribution: Beth Moon.

A portrait is more than a record of size

Moon chooses trees for their age, exceptional size or notable history. Those are related interests, but they are not interchangeable measurements. An enormous tree is not automatically the oldest, and a smaller specimen can have a remarkable lifespan or cultural significance.

The selected dragon’s-blood-tree image makes branching structure the main event. The crown spreads into a dense network, while the trunk gives the intricate upper shape a clear point of support.

Look from the outer edge inward. Repeated branching draws the eye toward larger limbs, making the tree feel both complex and coherent. The monochrome treatment helps texture and shape take priority over leaf colour.

Give each tree its own context

Moon’s wider project includes trees in different countries, climates and kinds of land ownership. Some stand in protected areas or on private estates. The photograph is a record of the artist’s access and viewpoint, not an automatic invitation to approach the same specimen.

A broad-crowned tree with a thick trunk in Beth Moon’s Portraits of Time gallery
A broad-crowned tree with a thick trunk in Beth Moon’s Portraits of Time gallery. Gallery attribution: Beth Moon.

When a tree has a published age, ask how that figure was established. Some ages are measured, others estimated, and different claims may count an individual trunk or a much older clonal system. A simple world-ranking list can hide those distinctions.

Scientists do not have to cut down a living tree to study its rings

The earlier version of this article suggested that seeing growth rings requires felling a tree. That is incorrect. NOAA’s tree-ring learning resource describes the use of a specialised increment borer to obtain a narrow core.

Ring patterns can help researchers investigate growth and past environmental conditions. Interpretation requires care: the presence and clarity of annual rings, the completeness of a sample and comparisons with other trees all affect what can be concluded.

Sampling is work for trained people with the necessary permission. For a visitor, observation and photography offer plenty to discover without removing material or damaging bark.

Make a tree portrait near home

Choose a tree you can view from a public path. Photograph the whole form, then one detail such as bark texture, a branching junction or the shadow of the crown.

Return in a different season or at another time of day. You may begin to notice changes that a single visit would miss, creating a small record of your own relationship with the place.

For a specific tree with visitor information, explore Angel Oak on Johns Island. For another artistic approach to woodland, see Ellie Davies’s forest photographs. Both can encourage closer looking while leaving the living landscape intact.