Robert Llewellyn’s latest book The Living Forest: Visual Journey Into the Heart of the Woods was recently reviewed in the New York Times. The book which was written by Joan Maloof with photographs by Robert Llewellyn is available for sale through Timber Press.
“In years past, Robert Llewellyn has blown our minds with the indelibly detailed photographs in “Seeing Trees,” “Seeing Flowers” and “Seeing Seeds.” In THE LIVING FOREST: A Visual Journey Into the Heart of the Woods (Timber, $40), he has teamed up with Joan Maloof, the founder and director of the Old-Growth Forest Network, to peer into the mystery and magic of our woodlands. Too often, we take for granted what their preface calls the “thin and lovely membrane” that is our biosphere.
Llewellyn and Maloof turn our gazes up into the forest canopy, where we find elegant herons and snazzy bluebirds in flight. We peer into the eyes of eagles, which can see for miles, and wonder, along with the authors, whether trees are sensitive to starlight. As Llewellyn and Maloof remind us, trees are “the lungs of the land,” and as such they’ve been woefully underappreciated; they’re the best mechanism we know of to suck up the pollution that’s warming the entire planet.
Llewellyn also reminds us of the sheer beauty of our surroundings as he catches the fetal curl of a leaf in midfall. Among the most alluring of his images are the golden portraits of larval salamanders. But there’s not enough here about insects: I hope that will be a future project, one that’s sorely needed. We aren’t doing nearly enough to protect our fellow creatures, whether rooted or roaming. And we fail to do so at our own peril.”