Water Pear Tree Collection

Water pear trees grow at the very edge of the river, deeply rooted and slow to change. In winter, when the water drops, their roots lie bare on the banks, twisted, ridged and folded like old leather, and every tree carries its own character, its own scars and its own long story.

Koos van der Lende spent two months in Zambia's Kafue National Park, and found the park burnt by poachers and the sky white with smoke. So he turned to the rivers. On the Lufupa, a slow brown river full of crocodile and hippo, he came upon these trees, and the idea came to him on the spot: the Africa of Livingstone and Stanley, a world from another century. He chose to work with shape, form and texture instead of colour, and gave the series the look of a photograph from the early 1900s, sepia toned, with aged and torn edges, to honour the age and the quiet wisdom the trees carry.

It is a departure from everything else in his archive, and one of his own favourite collections. For Koos it is where photography becomes art.