Tacita Dean Massive Photos of Ancient Trees

Tacita Dean, Sakura (Usuzumi II), 2024, Coloured pencil on handprinted Foma matte silver gelatin photograph mounted on paper, 254.5 x 366.8 cm / 100 1/4 x 144 3/8 in., via Frith Street Gallery Speaking of pieced together monumental gelatin silver prints of ancient Japanese treasures, Tacita Dean has made towering photographs of centuries-old cherry trees and colored them by hand. A couple were included in her 2024 show at the Menil. The one above, Sakura (Usuzumi II), 2024, is from her London dealers, Frith Street Gallery. Dean has been making portraits of ancient trees for a while, a practice which harkens back to the beginnings of photography. And the handcoloring of the sakura pictures makes them feel like 19th century photos. Except inverted, because she tints the trees’ surroundings, not their blossoms, which forefronts the human-made structures and braces holding up the trees’ branches. While venerating these trees for surviving 1,500 or even 2,000 years or more, it becomes…