Alex Turner American, b. 1984
Coast Live Oak, Infected with Goldspotted Oak Borer, Estimated 200 Years Old, Ventura County, CA, 2025
Gelatin silver print mounted to museum board
8 x 20 in.
The goldspotted oak borer, introduced from Arizona in the early 2000s, is devastating native oaks in Southern California, especially Coast Live Oaks. Often spread by infested firewood, it disrupts water...
The goldspotted oak borer, introduced from Arizona in the early 2000s, is devastating native oaks in Southern California, especially Coast Live Oaks. Often spread by infested firewood, it disrupts water flow within the tree, causing die-off. This oak is tagged a “reservoir tree” due to a severe infestation that threatens the surrounding grove.
About the series:
Blind Forest is a cross-disciplinary study of how trees absorb and reflect human and environmental histories. Created in collaboration with ecologists, historians, and anthropologists, the project explores their capacity to reveal shifting climates, cultural values, and systems of power over time. Set across California, Blind Forest employs thermal imaging—commonly used in surveillance, fire detection, and tree health assessment—to visualize the conservation, transmission, and dispersion of heat. Each large-scale image is composed from hundreds of thermal exposures, treating heat as both data and narrative: a high-fidelity record of vitality, stress, and decay.
The trees featured here trace enduring tensions between extraction and preservation, survival and erasure, change and continuity. They are both ecological keystones and mirrors of human intent. In this precarious moment, Blind Forest invites us to consider trees not as passive scenery, but as active participants—living archives that conserve, transmit, and disperse meaning across generations.
About the series:
Blind Forest is a cross-disciplinary study of how trees absorb and reflect human and environmental histories. Created in collaboration with ecologists, historians, and anthropologists, the project explores their capacity to reveal shifting climates, cultural values, and systems of power over time. Set across California, Blind Forest employs thermal imaging—commonly used in surveillance, fire detection, and tree health assessment—to visualize the conservation, transmission, and dispersion of heat. Each large-scale image is composed from hundreds of thermal exposures, treating heat as both data and narrative: a high-fidelity record of vitality, stress, and decay.
The trees featured here trace enduring tensions between extraction and preservation, survival and erasure, change and continuity. They are both ecological keystones and mirrors of human intent. In this precarious moment, Blind Forest invites us to consider trees not as passive scenery, but as active participants—living archives that conserve, transmit, and disperse meaning across generations.