Ever since I have left my homeland I have found it very hard to find anywhere as inspiring as the woods and countryside I had grown up with. I was literally pining and although some might say a tree is a tree, I couldn't quite get the same experience here as what I was used to back in France and those rolling hills of thick fir woods. I had to get to know deciduous forests and their ghostly winter bareness, shrubs and hedges that would remind me so painfully of the rhythm of seasons. I had lost my green winters!

But slowly I started marveling at this new and different nature so full of surprises and spectacular changes. I discovered old secular trees that had been given the space to grow wide and thick such as I'd never see before, and most of all I experienced the exuberant relief and euphoria of Springtime that I'd never quite felt so strongly before.

I had to look harder and go further to find these special places I wanted to wander and photograph. I started taking an interest in 'controlled' nature, a very British idea and art visible in the numerous fabulous gardens, arboretums, greenhouses, parks and coppices around the country.

This is my new project, observing and discovering the beauty of these places where trees and plants have been tamed and made friends.

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Bodenham Arboretum   Wolverley nr Kidderminster, Worcestershire