By Ugne Pouwell
Located in London, GB
'Baltic pine' 2021
The pine forests of the Baltic coast are shaped by conditions that are both precise and unforgiving: sandy soil, constant wind, salt carried inland from the sea, and long seasonal extremes of light and darkness.
These forces slow growth and distort form. Branches extend horizontally, twist, or break, adapting to pressure rather than symmetry.
This photograph was made in Giruliai forest, Lithuania, using a large-format 4×5 film camera. The process demands stillness and time, mirroring the environment itself. Each exposure is deliberate; nothing is incidental.
In Baltic landscapes, pine is not decorative. It is structural, a species that persists where others cannot. Its presence defines the rhythm of the coast and the experience of space within the forest. The image isolates this tension between endurance and fragility, movement and restraint.
Rendered in black and white, the work removes seasonal colour and geographic nostalgia, allowing form, density, and light to become the primary language. The resulting image is not a description of a place, but a study of adaptation, how nature holds itself under continuous pressure.
Printed as a limited edition of ten, this work belongs to an ongoing body of analogue photographs exploring northern landscapes through minimal intervention and material presence.
Photographed in Lithuania, Giruliai forest using a 4x5 large format camera...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Lithuania - Landscape Photography
