In 2020, Mitch Epstein discovered a pocket of old-growth forest near his childhood home in western Massachusetts. There were bristlecone pines, bald cypresses, and giant sequoias—trees that had swayed through sun and storm for hundreds, even thousands of years. Most had remained untouched by human hands.
One-third of the world’s forests are considered old-growth, Epstein learned, though few remain in the United States. He set out to photograph those that do—from California to Washington. Some trees stretch straight into the sky; others weave intricate webs of branches. The project took four years.
