'Cronus' from the series Tartarus by Grete Hjorth-Johansen
In ancient Greek mythology Cronus was a Titan, in other words a giant of great power and strength. He was banished to a part of the Underworld called Tartarus along with his other Titan siblings by his father Uranus who felt they were a threat. Cronus was a patron of the harvest, and he is often depicted with a sickle.
The glowing sides of this old, hollow tree stump made me think of the curve of the sickle, that's why I named it Cronus. I shot this tree on a wet and drizzly evening in the forest. I felt it had such a majestic and proud shape, and judging by the width of the stump, this would have been a mighty giant of a tree at one point.
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The old, pollarded trees of Epping Forest have caught my imagination as I explore the pained expressions that emerge once the trees are lit and isolated – screaming in silent agony but also still standing mighty proud.
Pollarding – the repeated cutting of timber – damages the trees until they die, hollow, contorted and exhausted.
Tartarus was the place of torture in the Greek underworld where the inhabitants were often forced to endlessly repeat futile tasks, much like these trees were repeatedly cut until 1870 when the commercial use of Epping Forest ended.
Each tree represents a deity with a connection to Tartarus. Beauty, suffering, myth and local history all come together to reveal the power struggle between human needs for timber and nature fighting back.
The photograph is a high resolution panoramic stitch and composite of several frames, lit with a flashlight in Epping Forest, UK.
Limited edition archival giclée prints are available from my website ghjstudio.com.
The first buyer of this NFT gets a 40% discount on the Cronus print.
This NFT is for personal use only. I retain the commercial rights to the image.
