Ali Shokri presents his work as a reminder that we need to take care of our natural world. As deforestation and the development of roads and dams ate away at the beauty of forests he has loved since childhood, Shokri began using his camera to try and make a difference.

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To me, each tree, like a human being, has a tale to tell. When a tree dies, a whole story is interrupted, and destiny is altered for the worse. I feel as if the trees, bundled at the back of trucks, are cursing us with their broken hands, wounded faces, and severed roots. Perhaps this is how we are led towards damnation, Little by little stripped of our humanity when man’s abounding foliage moistened with the dew’ is reduced to ash and smoke.

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Nature is a mirror to show us how humankind interacts with the world. Why can't we be kind to nature and the trees, the lungs of the earth? As an artist, I believe that art can remind us of this. And as an artist, I feel the responsibility to show the lungs of the earth.

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I know, I can’t save our trees with my photographs. I can’t return Nature to her imperious verdure. Yet, I try to capture the lonesomeness, and exile of the trees and encourage the viewers to look at nature with a different gaze, to remember that in the absence of trees the birds are homeless and there’s no air to breathe, to remember that if there are no trees humanity has already vanished.

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Bio
Ali Shokri is an Iranian landscape and nature photographer, has always had a love for the outdoors. Ali has been active as a passionate nature photographer since 2004, focusing on trees. known for portraying the Trees Photography, Ali was TED speaker in Baku in 2010 and published a book about the life of trees in the UK in 2017.

https://www.alishokri.art/