The Urban Forest

Kate Glicksberg is a Brooklyn-based photographer whose latest exhibition, "The Urban Forest", is up at Chashama, 30 West 8th Street in Manhattan. Recently, I saw her poignant exhibition and asked her to be part of our inaugural one-ish question interview.

See photos of "The Urban Forest".

Elastic City: In many of the photos, the landscape looks simultaneously in shock and self-aware. Does it feel that way to you and how did you go about capturing these images?

Kate Glicksberg: That's an interesting way of describing these images. I always think of the trees as thriving or surviving. But yes, there's often a sense of displacement in the images. Especially in relation to the trees that are in the process of being planted. They seem simultaneously vulnerable and ambitious.

My process is varied. I find locations while traveling through the city. Sometimes I capture it then and there with a digital point and shoot. Other times, I imagine how I want the image to look-- quality of light, season, time of day and will wait to photograph it with either a medium or large format camera. Often, I will shoot the scene several times until I get an image I'm satisfied with. And then sometimes I roam the city with my camera hoping to be surprised. That's the most unpredictable way of working. Sometimes you find something and sometimes you return empty-handed, but it's a good exercise in being open to the environment.

I also produced a book in conjunction with the exhibition. It's a photo zine that chronicles the project in a wider spectrum than was possible in the show. It reveals more of my thinking on the subject as well as my process of discovery.