PHOTO:Ali Shokri-The Passion Of Trees
Born in 1982 Ali Shokri is an Iran-based landscape photographer with a strong passion for trees. He has spent the last 16 years working on a project called “The Tree”. As a result of this project, his images have been exhibited several times, he was Ted speaker, and his book “The Passion Of Trees” was published in the UK, which is available at Amazon.
By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Ali Shokri Archive
Ali Shokri from an early age was different from all his other siblings; fascination of nature and creatures were apparent in him from childhood. This fascination would be more manifested every summer when the family stayed in the summer house the family owned in the rural part of the city on the mountain slopes of the Mount Garadagh. Over the years, Ali has witnessed the beauty of the forests that he has loved since his childhood severely decline. As the number of roads and dams have increased, and more and more of the forests have been destroyed, the situation has become increasingly desperate. His book “The Passion of Trees” is Ali’s stark reminder that the natural world deserves our care. Through his photography, Ali encourages viewers to consider the world around them and to look upon nature with a different perspective, to consider the very real possibility that without swift action, the devastating effects of climate change and the decline of countless animals and plants. As Ali Shokri says “Every year I witness the incineration of vast expanses of the Arasbaran Forests, a unique biodiversity, which is steadily dwindling. Owing to the inordinate dam and road construction, the proliferation of factories and mines, and many other reasons, wildlife in these forests is so devastated that even lumber smugglers would feel dejected at the sight.. When a tree dies, a whole story is interrupted, a destiny is altered for the worse. I feel as if the trees, bundled at the back of trucks, are cursing us with their broken hands, wounded faces, and severed roots. Perhaps this is how we are led towards damnation, little by little stripped of our humanity when man’s “abounding foliage moistened with the dew” is reduced to ash and smoke. I know I can’t save our trees with my photographs, I can’t restore nature to its imperious verdure, yet I try to capture the lonesomeness and exile of the trees and encourage the viewers to look at nature with a different gaze, to remember that in the absence of trees the birds are homeless and there’s no air to breathe, to remember that if there are no trees humanity has already vanished”. Ali Shokri’s project “Trees” is a collection of photographs taken in Iran and Azerbaijan’s stunning nature. However, this is a collection of nature photographs with a difference.
