Trees

In a world where a vast number of individuals have access to a camera, the challenge is no longer a matter of technology but of reconnecting to what is meaningful. Lav’s portraits of trees, as I think of them, reveal what we are coming to know about trees - that they are interconnected and even have ways of communicating with one another. But these photographs become something else - there is a sense of encountering a figure in its environment, of the contrast and harmonies that describe trees and a relationship to the natural world through the lens of a human’s lifetime. And I think this is where we start to find Brian Lav as an artist. His photographs have a painterly quality to them. His work is just as much about his personal approach in interacting with the world as it is about the presence of his subjects. -Mia Kaplan, artist