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Brilio.net/en - Its a mystical sight. In the cooler, northwestern of Poland lies a forest with the mot peculiar oddity. The forest, which is close to the village Nowe Czarnowo, has tress with a shape that was never before been seen on such a wide front. Everywhere you look you see trees which, as soon as the appear from the ground, take an abrupt horizontal curve, always pointing to the north, to turn upwards again after a meter or two.
No one knows why the trees in the Krazywy Las-forest, which roughly translates to "The Crooked Forest grows like that. Theres rumours of Nazi tales and witchcraft, of energy fields and sorcery but nothing that truly explains the cause of the crooked growth on these Polish trees. Tales of deliberate tree manipulation by humans are the most likely of the causes, but there hasnt been any evidence to fully prove that theory.
German landscape photographer Kilian Schnberger drove to Poland to capture the mysterious forest in his aptly named photo series The Crooked Forest. Schnberger is a great photographer for the series as he was born color blind, making it difficult for him to distinguish between low saturated parts of colors such as blue and purple, red and green, and grey and magenta.
My relationship to colors has always been special. When I publish photos I always have to ask someone to check them, because otherwise theres a chance Ive overlooked something: the sky would be green, for instance, of the fog would be magenta. That is why Im more a fan of structures, I guess, because I can understand those even without their color. The eerie shapes of the trees, in combination with the mist of the morning creates for a basic color palette that evokes imagery of horror movies.
He used wide-angle-lenses to underline the grandeur of the place, while the mist made the forest appear more minimalistic, more desolate. I wanted the series to have this kind of reduced aesthetic, no vibrant colors, no sunrays and no sun in general. The trees should be the main actorsa portrait of a strange part of reality. I had Salvador Dal in mind when taking these pictures.
Take a look at these mystical pictures and maybe youll understand the eerie legends that are based on this forest.
(brl/tis)
