Recently, I have been thinking a lot about forests. I am very fortunate to live close to Ashdown Forest in Sussex. It is a mixed habitat of open heathland and woodland that is a legacy of hundreds of years of human use and nature’s response. Some parts are obviously managed and used a lot by dog walkers and ramblers. Other parts are wilderness, away from people and their activities. These quiet areas are my favourites. I can sit under a tree and just be part of the forest, just as my distant ancestors would have done.
We homo sapiens evolved in the forest. Our long arms and broad shoulders are a reminder that we are descended from early primates that lived in the trees. With some training, we can restore the ability to climb with our arms. Go and climb a tree, it’s exhilarating!
The forest provided us with all we needed. We could gather plants, hunt for animals, find shelter and bring up our families. Relatives like chimpanzees and gorillas still do that. We only began to create our own world of farms and villages about 10,00 years ago. In evolutionary terms, that is the blink of an eye. We are still programmed to live in the forest. That must be why I feel so at home sitting under a tree in Ashdown Forest, it is my home. That’s why reconnecting with nature is such a frequently heard phrase. That’s why people engage in shinrin-yoku or forest bathing. It’s a homecoming, it’s a nod to the spirits of our ancestors, it’s who we are.
A forest is not one thing. It is the trees, grass, brambles, gorse, fungi, birds, deer, mice, algae and water. A forest is an ecosystem, a web of living things, living in cooperation.
In the same way, we are not one thing. The term human microbiome describes the countless microbiota that inhabit the gut, breast, uterus, eyes, skin, lungs and mouth. These aren’t parasites; they are our companions through life. Without them, our bodies would not work. We are not one thing; we are all an ecosystem. We are a forest.
So our bodies are just a point on a scale of complexity. We exist because of cooperation and diversity; we are nourished by cooperation and diversity. A full life and life itself depend on our interactions with other beings, from the bacteria in our guts to the people that make us laugh.
These mutual relationships carry with them the demand for parity. If we are dependent on one another, none can be superior to the other. Sadly, the modern world is founded on the idea of human exceptionalism. We homo sapiens, especially in the modern Western world have long believed ourselves to be superior to the rest of life and consequently have spent centuries treating the world with contempt. Our treatment of the forests that sustain us is particularly egregious. So is it any wonder that so many people in the Western world are depressed, infertile, anxious, obese and broke? We thought we could manage without our life support system, but we were wrong.
I want to explore these ideas through my photography, looking at life outside of the forest and how we might return. A Genesis played backwards, where we return to the Garden of Eden, having realised our mistakes. It is a huge thrill to go into my archive, armed with a lot of new ideas, and see which pictures already respond to this new project. They, in turn, provide the inspiration for new work. The project is the incubator for ideas and new pictures.
Ideas drive my photography; I want my work to show how I see the world. As this project progresses, I will share my new work in this newsletter and on my website.
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I am deeply grateful to other people who share their thoughts about the world. I recently encountered a quite wonderful book called The Nation of Plants by Stefano Mancuso. It is a real inspiration, an imagining of the advice that plants would give to human beings. If you warmed to the ideas above, I would recommend it to you. You can read my reflections on the book here: https://chrisjerrey.medium.com/thoughts-on-the-nation-of-plants-by-stefano-mancuso-db49a4217e49
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And finally, more trees! This review in The Guardian caught my eye and seemed to sit very well with a forest-related post. The Genius of Trees by Harriet Rix is about how homo sapiens began their journey in the forest and how those origins play out today. I haven’t read it, but this review means I probably will: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/aug/25/the-genius-of-trees-how-forests-have-shaped-humanity-from-chocolate-cravings-to-our-ability-to-dream
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Chris