This photograph of a bristlecone pine is part of Ian van Coller’s larger work on climate change and deep time. A striking and glorious depiction of a rare species of ancient tree. Worn by time, whether, and wind the branches are knarled and twisted, some dead, others living. A survivor in a barren landscape, its roots cling to dry rock.

Excerpt of an essay by Jonathon Keats in Ian van Coller’s artist book, Bristlecones of the Long Now:

Several million years ago, around the dawn of the last Ice Age, the North American Great Basin transitioned from a temperate region to cold desert. Bristlecone pine trees were present, as they had been for some forty million years, and they flourished with the change because they were suited to arid climates.

Today, as global temperatures rise, the Great Basin's bristlecones find themselves in less auspicious conditions. They're climbing to higher altitudes, not individually but as communities fleeing the rising heat. Saplings are taking root on mountaintops, which are becoming islands of refuge above a sea of warmth more favorable to faster-growing species. Encroaching temperate forest also threatens to engulf older bristlecones, some of which have been holding their ground for nearly five millennia.

Page-through of the artist’s book and full essay.
All book plates offered as limited edition prints.