Joan Maloof - The Living Forest: A Visual Journey Into the Heart of the Woods

It is our intention that this book be a reminder that the living part of our planet, the biosphere, is just a thin and lovely membrane. We have harmed much of this membrane, but because it is alive it has the ability to heal. Here we celebrate the part of the biosphere known as the temperate deciduous forest, and all the life it contains. It is our wish that increased understanding will provide motivation for allowing the forest to continue unimpeded on its wild trajectory.

Although the photographs on these pages are stunningly beautiful and we can witness such views, its impossible to really see the whole of a forest. A forest is a complex web of energy and matter that reaches far beyond the confines of identified acreages. Much of what a forest does, and is, is invisible and can never be captured by the camera. At other times, the energy and the matter align on the scale of human perception and we see: oh, a blossom, a salamander, a mushroom, a bear! All amazing, all wonders to be studied forever and, even then, to be felt more than fully understood. Take any one of these photographic images and spend some time with it, and you will understand what the poet William Blake meant about seeing the world in a grain of sand. These nodes of matter show us the never-ending flow of energy right here, right this moment. And the shutter clicks.

The pen is slower, but it can include a bit more of the intersections. It can tell of strand pulling strand in the web of life. It can hint at the dimension of time.

And then, finally, beyond the camera and the pen is the energy and matter that you, reader, bring to the equation. For after you douse yourself in the images and the words, you must go a step beyond and add the dimension of experience. It is only then that you will truly start seeing the forest. And the forest will see you, too. There are plenty of eyes in these photos and, as you will read here, even the eyeless trees sense your light.

But how do we organize this discussion of a place where everything is happening at once? We chose to start with the largest bones, the treesthe living structures that define a forestand to move from the canopy to the ground. There is much life in the canopy, but primarily it is a surface for catching lightthe source of energy that powers the entire forest.