“…one might subtract all matter but the apple tree and still see, in what remained, the contours of the world.”

– from North Woods: A Novel by Daniel Mason

 
 
 

OVERHEARD IN THE ORCHARD

I know a woman who talks to her Golden Delicious apple tree. And her tree talks back. Linda Hoffman is a writer, sculptor, and orchardist. We both live in Harvard, Massachusetts, a town well known for its many fruit orchards. I moved here more than 30 years ago to raise my young family in a place close to nature. Spending time in these beautiful landscapes nourishes my body and soul. 

Our collaboration came about serendipitously when I approached Linda about photographing in her orchard, telling her I wanted to express the whole world through an apple. Seasonal patterns, the cycles of life, and the elements of attraction, reproduction, and immortality are all there in the apple. She told me about a project she had just started in the voice of her apple trees, and suggested we might create something together.

I spent a year wandering through Linda’s orchard open to what might reveal itself through slow, careful observation. Everywhere, I saw poetry. Initially, my orchard images were in color, but after reading Linda’s early conversations, I knew my photographs needed to be more abstract, more elegant, to be in concert with her words. My orchard images became warm duotones, and with her words, they evoke the wisdom of the tree and the long relationship of humans and apples. 

When we began this project, neither knew how our artistic threads might weave together. This shared experience has evolved into an abiding friendship, an even deeper appreciation for the natural world, and a book titled Overheard in the Orchard – soon to be released.