Rummaging through found photos in antique stalls and flea markets, German Jochen Raiß noticed a curious trend in amateur photography from the 1920s to the 1950s: there were a lot of women posing in trees. So many of them, in fact, that Raiß spent the next 25 years hunting for tree-themed photographs, building up a sizable archive of around 1500 snapshots.
Published by Hatje Cantz, Women in Trees is a nostalgic collection of charming young women posing for the camera while perched languidly on branches or clinging precariously to tree trunks, stylish and sassy in summer dresses and crisp shirts. The book prompts us to muse over the lives of these anonymous tree-climbing women: who took these photos? Was tree-posing cool at that time? Whose idea was it to clamber up the branches? One thing’s for sure though – these gals were not afraid of heights.
Purchase Women in Trees here.
