LONDON IS A FOREST
Marissa Roth was commissioned by the marketing department of Leica Camera UK to create a ‘street shooting’ photo essay using their Q2 Monochrom camera. In thinking about the assignment, she chose to photograph in London, which is not only a visually interesting city, but is also considered to be the world’s largest urban forest with over 8.3 million trees. Some of these trees are recently planted saplings while others are hundreds of years old survivors from ancient woodlands. About 900,000 trees are street trees that provide an often overlooked backdrop to everyday life.
In setting the parameters for this small project with the theme of trees, she gave herself the challenge of visiting numerous boroughs while photographing a different kind of tree for each image — her only duplicate is the ubiquitous London Plane Tree. She sought out notable trees in public parks and randomly came upon unexpected specimens that caught her eye in commons and along busy streets and quiet walks. Along the way, she had arboreal botany lessons, learning how to distinguish many of them by their leaves and bark.