I shot these photos of a shedding stringybark eucalypt (I’m not sure of the species) quite near to my house. I was out to photograph something else but it wasn’t working out…then I saw this amazing tree.

The pictures remind me of a photographer by the name of Hiro Nishhikawa who takes large format, monochrome photos, developing them with a platinum and palladium solution, and using 100 year old lenses.

His current project is to photograph trees around Tokyo. Interestingly, he calls this project: They Hate Us.

Plants are by no means quiet and docile creatures. The Earth seen from space in a different timeline is a green planet where plants continue to spring up from underground.

Humans are a nuisance to the plants filling the Earth’s landmass. When humans expand their territory, they fill the ground with stones, concrete, asphalt, etc. to contain the growth of plants. And humans try to control plants.

The few plants that live in the city are planted to heal humans and then cut down under humans’ new plans. Even so, the plants do not get angry or cry. This is because they have watched the history of the earth for a long time and know that humans will eventually disappear. Just wait for humans to die out.

Plants think. “THEY HATE US”

humans think. “THEY HATE US”

— Hiro Nishikawa

You can watch a video of Hiro in action including his shooting and developing processes here. It is quite fascinating.