The Forest and the EcoGothic

“Robert Harrison, in his seminal work Forests: The Shadow of Civilisation (1992), mourns the widespread loss of our connection to the woods, arguing that we now see them as mere setting and resource. We have largely lost the ability, it seems, to see them as truly strange, monstrous, and enchanting.”

Elizabeth Parker, The Forest and the EcoGothic: The Deep Dark Woods in the Popular Imagination (p. 5; Palgrave MacMillan, 2021)

On my trip to photograph Sherwood Forest, due to the historical and mythical tales of Robin Hood, and also as one of the largest collections of ancient oaks in Europe, I started reading The Forest and the EcoGothic, and it had a profound effect, particularly on my vision for my final project. It seemed to be exactly what I was looking for.

In this book, which focuses on the darker, scarier side of depictions of forests, Elizabeth Parker reiterates some of the points Harrison made in Forests. Parker says that people's fascination with the romanticised concept of forests reflects their sense of loss and the significance of forests to them, and is symbolic of a variety of emotions and situations, including danger, renewal, and bewilderment. She explains the literature on forest mythologies is vast, and Gothic depictions of forests in stories may be the result of innate fears and fears created in stories. During environmental crises, Parker argues for seeking out ‘Gothic Nature’, as well as ‘Romantic Nature’, because it brings an important darkness of nature worth embracing.

When I started reading this, I had just taken some shots that would open up a new way of portraying trees to me, that fit in superbly with the Gothic and Romantic, by evoking the ‘sublime.’

“In a broader sense, The Forest and the EcoGothic significantly examines our representations of and relationship to nonhuman Nature. It does so in a time when understanding—and questioning—this relationship is more vital than ever before.”

(p. 3; Parker, 2021)