New York Arbor

New York Arbor is Mitch Epstein's series of portraits of individual trees in New York City, published as a book by Steidl in 2013.

Steidl says Epstein spent 2011 and 2012 exploring the five boroughs in search of remarkable trees, often going back to the same tree through changing seasons and light. They stand along sidewalks and in parks and cemeteries. Some grow wild, some bend to fit tight spaces, and some are pruned as specimens. Epstein learnt that many were planted in one setting, such as a farm or nursery, and outlasted it to become part of another. His website says many are hundreds of years old and came to the city as souvenirs and diplomatic gifts. He treats them as portrait subjects, so the trees dominate the people and buildings around them. The book is a 96-page hardcover in English.

Epstein has photographed the landscape and culture of America for half a century and was a pioneer of 1970s colour fine-art photography. He graduated from Cooper Union and has received a Guggenheim Fellowship (2002), the Berlin Prize (2008) and the Prix Pictet (2011).