An ongoing series of photographs and 3D scans of Los Angeles' Indian laurel fig trees, exploring the interactions between street trees and people in the urban environment.

See images below and more information about the series.

"Big Bird, Los Angeles Street"
(2020) "Big Bird, Los Angeles Street"
(2020)
archival pigment print
36 x 31 inches "557, Fairfax Avenue" (2021) "Little White Hat, Los Angeles Street"
(2017) "Aqua Splash, Fairfax Avenue" (2017/2020) "Burl and Root Baroque, Fairfax Avenue"
(2021) "Green Dot, Manchester Avenue"
(2018)
archival pigment print "Thief, Fairfax Avenue" (2013)
archival pigment print
12.375 x 18 inches "Chalk Heart, Convoy Street, Playa del Rey" (2021) "Tree Facing LAPD
Central Booking)"
(2017) "Another Helen Was Here,
Fairfax Avenue"
(2019) "He Responds to His Name, Fairfax Avenue" (2019) with detail "Etant Donnés, Fairfax Avenue"
(2012/2013)
archival pigment print,
hand-colored with pastel pencils
16.5 x 24 inches "Red Curb, Fairfax Avenue" (2020) "Elephant, Manchester Avenue" (2019) "Equation, Manchester Avenue" (2018) "Totem (Indian Laurel Fig Tree, Los Angeles) (2018)
acrylic on 3D-printed PLA plastic
derived from photogrammetry 3D scan
8 x 6 x 6 inches, ed. 1/3
Private Collection, Lincoln, NE Screenshot of 3D scan of "Culver Boulevard, Playa del Rey" (2021) "Parallel Lines, Manchester Avenue" (2020) "Scratched Out 2017" (2017/2020) "The Scream, after Edvard Munch"
(2018/2020) Thief (Tree, Los Angeles) (2013) archival pigment print, hand-colored with pastel pencils 12 x 17.25 inches Helen Glazer, Aqua Splash, Los Angeles tree tree with paint splash Moreton Bay Fig, Santa Barbara (Fence) Big Bird (Tree, Los Angeles) Little White Hat (Tree, Los Angeles) (2014) archival pigment print 24 x 14.5 inches or 40 x 24.25 inches Etant Donnés (Tree, Los Angeles) (2014) archival pigment print, hand-colored with pastel pencils 24 x 16.5 inches Red Curb Totem Sculpture, four views Helen Glazer, Totem Green Dot, Manchester Avenue, Los Angeles You Have the Right to Remain Silent (Tree, Los Angeles) (2014) archival pigment print 18.75 x 17.5 inches or 40 x 37.5 inches Equation (Tree, Los Angeles) Chalk Heart, Convoy Street, Playa del Rey Detail of He Responds to His Name (2017/2019) He Responds to His Name (2017/2019) archival pigment print Helen Was Here (2017/2019) archival pigment print, 18 x 12.5 or 24 x 16 inches Detail of He Responds to His Name (2017/2019) Elephant Kneeling Tree Burl and Root Baroque (Los Angeles) Helen Glazer, Scratched Out 2017 (Tree, Los Angeles) Helen Glazer, Scratched Out 2018 (Tree, Los Angeles) Little Burls (Tree, Los Angeles) Asphalt Eater 2 The Scream, after Edvard Munch The Scream woodcut 557, Fairfax Avenue, Los Angeles "Big Bird, Tree, Los Angeles" (2020) archival pigment print, framed to 42.5 x 37 inches. Screenshot of 3D scan, Culver Boulevard, Playa del Rey

 

Los Angeles

These are part of an ongoing photographic series of trees in urban environments, which relates to a larger theme of all my projects over the past 16 years: the search for a deeper understanding of what natural forms tell you about the particular conditions of the moment. The main body of work has been photographed on successive visits to Los Angeles of Indian laurel fig trees, a Southeast Asian species planted along neighborhood streets there and in other cities on California's Central Coast. With their smooth bark and humanoid forms, they have an animated, expressive presence. They're sturdy survivors, bearing the traces of time's passage and the indignities visited upon them, still standing. I highlight their distinctive profiles and gestures by replacing the backgrounds of my photographs in post-processing with color gradients, as if the tree had posed for a studio portrait. I also capture them in three dimensions using photogrammetry.

Santa Barbara

I also have a series of photographs of the Moreton Bay Fig in Santa Barbara, California, a gigantic Australian import planted over 140 years ago, which are presented here as a separate slide show.

Background: I first noticed rows of strangely humanoid Indian laurel fig trees along a busy Los Angeles thoroughfare, after family members moved there in 2012. On subsequent visits, I realized they are widely planted. From Little Tokyo to Beverly Hills, they endure similar treatment: bearing the scars of interaction with humans — staples, nails, street lamps, bits of torn posters. For decades they have also provided a seemingly irresistible surface for graffiti carvers. They frequently push back forcefully against the concrete and asphalt that contains them, cantilevering sidewalk slabs and curling their roots over curbs. Eventually I discovered that they are Ficus microcarpa 'Nitida,' a non-native Southeast Asian shade variety frequently used as a street tree in Southern California. My research turned up a government report that indicated that this species comprises 5% of the trees in LA. I have photographed them repeatedly and my series has gradually grown to encompass neighborhoods all over the city.

My underlying motivation is to find beauty in an unexpected place, complexity and layers of experience in something we think we already know, underlying relationships in what at first glance seems random, and experiences that cannot be fully described verbally. I search for a deeper understanding of what natural forms tell you about the particular conditions of the moment, and in the case of the Indian laurel figs, the story is one of interaction with human beings in a non-native urban environment.

I have also 3D-scanned the trees using photogrammetry, and produced one of these scans as a small sculpture. Read more about the process I use.

Image Notes: Dates given as (year photographed/year edited and completed). Sizes are given for ones that have been printed, but all are available in the 12 x 18, 16 x 24, or larger sizes, in editions of 10.