Survivor, 2015
n 2002, a devastating storm struck St. Andrew Island in the Rovinj Archipelago, Croatia. The one-hundred-year-old pine trees were all destroyed, except for one: Survivor. The archipelago, along with the Punta Corrente park forest, is one of Croatia's most valuable examples of landscape architecture, created at the beginning of the 20th century.
The tree appeared powerful and sculptural, standing alone, surrounded only by the vastness of the sky. I walked around it and photographed it in fragments. The composition, consisting of three images, imposed itself only later, when I reviewed what I had captured. I framed it in unusually deep frames, placing the photographs directly beneath the glass, on the “surface” — this amplified its sculptural presence.
In exhibitions, the work is hung very high. Its elevated position and suggestive composition evoke a feeling of sacredness. It is how we should feel whenever we look at life, nature, and planet Earth if we want to survive. Humanity is at a turning point. The way we treat the more-than-human world must change— the responsibilities we now hold demand a new way of thinking.