Fragments: The Ghost Wood; The Rainforest

A reflection of time spent in the ancient woodlands in the North and in the West of Scotland during the Winter of 2024/25, and the Spring and Summer of 2025.

The Scottish temperate rainforests, on the west coast, are pockets of wet and warm woodland, whose climatic conditions allow for rich biodiversity and abundance of highly specialised species of lichens, liverworts and ferns. ‘Ghost Woods’, is a recent term coined in Scotland to describe an ancient wood with less than 20% of its canopy remaining, reducing the chance of natural regrowth in the face of predation by deer and sheep. Both are areas at risk.

My project did not set out to present an argument for the restoration and maintenance of these woods. I simply wished to experience them and to photograph them in that moment.   However, as I was working in the hottest, driest Spring and Summer in 60 years, with wildfires and climate change high in the news, it became inevitable that I reflected upon their predicament.

The concept of a ‘fragment’ crystallised as I was preparing my prints between field trips.  My imagined woodland looked nothing at all like the photographs I had made of the dry and brittle areas I had visited. Supposed wetlands were crunchy underfoot.  My photographs reflected a bone-dry environment, at risk from wildfires, with little sign of the wet, verdant, moss and lichen dripping tree branches of websites, blogs, and textbooks.  As I walked in the woods, I was also surprised at how small a space they occupied in the landscape and how fragmented they really were.

I found that I was capturing a fragment of a fragment.

I was left with the feeling that at some point soon, there may be only photographs.

I am very grateful to Highlife Highland for the award of a VACMA bursary, and to WASPS for their financial support for this exhibition.