Beatrice Haverich: The Whisper of a Million Leaves

Beatrice Haverich believes that “trees embody life. They show us the seasons in a city landscape, and they provide us with wood, food and shelter. Their silence demands our respect.” Her subjects, for whom she has the utmost sympathy, are survivors, stalwarts: for example, the Yew trees in Kingsley Vale, UK, are 4,000 years old. Among these portraits, she observes branches molded by the wind into lopsided hairstyles, and roots exposed by the rain. Some trees survive in cement planters or remain in the bounds of their sidewalk squares, but others reclaim their habitat, taking over old greenhouses and popping the glass panes one by one as they grow. Up from sand and boulders and cliffs and pavement, Haverich’s trees are shaped by their landscape, but they persist in shaping it as well.