Clare Hewitt: Everything in the forest is the forest

In 2019, artist Clare Hewitt read a government report suggesting that loneliness and isolation were increasing in rural areas of the UK. Simultaneously, she was learning that trees communicate, nurture, and thrive in sentient communities.

For the past five years, Hewitt has worked at The Birmingham Institute of Forest Research(BIFoR FACE) within a circle of twelve oak trees, which are about 180 years old, and would have been acorns when photography was invented.

Setting her artist studio within this circle, Hewitt has repetitively documented the forest and its seasonal changes. She has examined the way trees relate to each other. In the subterranean world, they connect their roots with fungal networks to share nutrients and information, identify and nurture their offspring, pass wisdom to their young, and care for their community.

Everything in the forest is the forest presents 14 bodies of work that celebrate trees’ remarkable ability to nurture and communicate, and offers a wealth of insights on how we, as a society, can gain from the unity, communities and relationships found within the forest.

Clare Hewitt says, “I started visiting the trees as often as I could, and I began to think about why they are so successful at creating and nurturing a community. Trees are doing so many things right, and we have veered off on a different track somewhere along the way. I now look to the trees and their ecosystem to inspire change, and I’ve tried to replicate their behaviour in my creative practice and my life.”

Many of the bodies of work have never been seen before, ranging from large format six-month to four-year long exposures made in handmade ‘birdbox’ pinhole cameras, affixed to the oak trees; three hundred individual and unique oak leaf lumen prints exposed to the sun on the forest floor; oak gall ink paintings; videos made in the subterranean roots environment through to photographs by workshop participants, working with Hewitt,  created during the pandemic.

The exhibition is accompanied by a resonating immersive sound recording of the dawn chorus in the forest, made in collaboration with musician Professor Annie Mahtani.

Sustainability and environmentally conscious considerations are the cornerstone of the exhibition, with reusing and re-purposing principles. Every process and production has been meticulously researched and carefully considered, such as printing on paper made with waste from the fashion industry and using reclaimed scaffold boards to make frames.

Mindful of creating a book inspired by the behaviours she observed in the forest, Hewitt has worked collaboratively with artists Carolyn Morton and Danielle Phelps, alongside designer Emily Macaulay of Stanley James Press to make Everything in the forest is the forest, a handmade biodegradable photobook.

The book features a specially commissioned collaborative text by international writers Kerri ní Dochartaigh, Marchelle Farrell and Jessica J. Lee. Throughout summer 2025, the book will circulate nationally via a borrow and share, rather than buy and keep, community-driven distribution system.

Anne McNeill, Director, says, “Caring for the environment has increasingly been a central concern for the work we show and the work we produce. We are committed to presenting photography that is more sustainable and better for the environment. I am delighted that Impressions is premiering this innovative and thoughtful work of Clare Hewitt, an artist who I consider to be at the vanguard of sustainable artistic practice. I believe Everything in the forest is the forest is a ground-breaking project and exemplar of sustainability that will benefit future generations of photographers, artists and visitors alike.”

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With thanks to GRAIN Projects, The Birmingham Institute of Forest Research (BIFoR FACE), University of Birmingham, STEAMhouse, UWE Bristol, Stirchley Printworks, and a-n The Artists Information Company.

The book has been made possible by Arts Council England (National Lottery project funding).

An Impressions Gallery touring exhibition, presented as part of Bradford 2025, UK City of Culture.

Clare Hewitt

Clare Hewitt (b. 1983) is a photographic artist based in Birmingham, UK. After completing a degree in Law at Oxford Brooks University, she went on to study Commercial Photography at Arts University Bournemouth. Her work has been exhibited at venues including Landskrona Foto Festival, the National Portrait Gallery, Open Eye Gallery, and the Royal Photographic Society, amongst others. In 2019, Hewitt was the recipient of the GRAIN Bursary Award. Her clients include The New Yorker, The Guardian, Photoworks, Oxfam, The New Statesman, and The Wire. Hewitt also works as an Archivist and a Senior Lecturer in Photography at the University of the West of England, Bristol. https://clarehewitt.co.uk