Introduction
There are trees that grow in gardens, forests, or parks —and then there is the tree that grows inside myth. The Eden Tree Series was born not only from a visual encounter with a decorative níspero near my home in Loja (Granada), but from the recognition that this humble yet majestic tree could become a metaphorical stage. Through long exposures and intentional camera movement, its branches and roots dissolve into a shimmering allegory, where hope and ruin, ascent and collapse, coexist.
Genesis – The First Encounters (2021)
I discovered the tree in 2021, standing over a small fountain at the end of a pedestrian street. It was not bearing fruit, yet its presence was powerful. A narrow staircase led the eye toward the sky above, as if climbing into an unseen paradise. That architectural accident —tree, stairs, sky— immediately evoked the biblical ascent to Eden.
My first captures that year were technically simpler, flatter in their treatment of light, almost hesitant. ICM was present, but the narrative was absent. I uploaded some of those images, but they remained raw impressions. It would take years before I could articulate the deeper discourse that the series demanded.
Symbol and Allegory – Human Translations
By 2025, after countless experiments and failed attempts, I distilled the series into four definitive works: Eden Tree I, II, III, and IV. Each one embodies a stage of the allegory.
- The tree as the forbidden knowledge, glowing in a fractured atmosphere.
- The path as the human journey, narrow, tortuous, always pointing upward.
- The collapse and return, echoing our cycles of failure, ego, endurance, and resurrection.
- The final image, where balance seems restored, though never without scars.
This duality between biblical narrative (light against darkness, the lost paradise, the test of will) and its human counterpart (effort, fall, constancy, transcendence) gives the series its universal resonance.
Technique and Evolution of Style
From 2021 to 2025, the images underwent a profound transformation.
- Early versions were more literal: the tree recognizable, the background present.
- Later works embrace abstraction as metaphor: the tree dissolves into pure light, the stairs become only suggestion, the sky vibrates like a painter’s brushstroke.
ICM became less about motion and more about gesture, like a cinematic travelling compressed into one frame. Color shifted from natural hues to symbolic palettes —blue for transcendence, red for temptation, gold for divine promise.
The technical process remained faithful: long exposures, in-camera movement, minimal digital correction. The aesthetic, however, evolved toward the principles of Allegorical Abstractionism —where form dissolves, but meaning sharpens.
The Tree as a Contemporary Myth
Eden Tree is not documentary nature. It is nature transfigured into myth. In an age of ecological collapse and moral uncertainty, this glowing níspero becomes more than a decorative tree in a Spanish street. It becomes the Tree of Choices: the eternal mirror of humanity’s struggle between creation and destruction.
The allegory remains open. For some, it is biblical. For others, psychological. For me, it is a dialogue with time —the persistence of nature against human fragility, the memory of paradise inside a world of ruin.
Connections with Other Series
The Eden Tree Cycle is a pillar of my language. It stands alongside:
- Encrypted Sun —where the sun is hidden truth, burning behind veils.
- Nature Against Humanity —where allegory confronts civilization.
- Paths —where the road becomes destiny itself.
Together, they define the contours of my movement: Allegorical Abstractionism.
Conclusion
The Eden Tree Cycle was not born in a single year. It required a long dialogue with one tree, one place, one myth, until four images carried the weight of universality. From flat beginnings in 2021 to allegorical refinement in 2025, the series reveals how a single subject can become inexhaustible when seen through the lens of metaphor.
The Eden Tree is not a tree. It is the stage of our struggles, our ascents, our collapses, and our renewal.
Eden Tree Cycle — Nature as Myth in Fine Art ICM Photography — Essay
The Eden Tree Cycle explores the eternal struggle between light and darkness, creation and destruction, hope and despair. At its center stands the tree — a metaphor for the original Tree of Eden, the symbol of both temptation and salvation. Each work presents the tree as more than a simple form of nature: it becomes a guardian, a witness, and finally a victor in the battle between good and evil. Around it, the world burns or fades into shadow, yet the tree resists with luminous strength, its aura glowing in tones of gold and green.
The Eden Tree Cycle defines one of the core ideas of Allegorical Abstractionism: the reconciliation of nature and spirit through light. Each image transforms the tree into an archetype — a living axis between earth and heaven. These images are not only landscapes but allegories. They ask whether light can endure when surrounded by overwhelming darkness, whether nature can still rise against human-made ruin, and whether hope can survive where destruction seems to prevail. The Eden Tree reminds us that even in the deepest night, the possibility of renewal persists. Its roots are in the earth, but its force belongs to the realm of spirit — a living bridge between what is lost and what can still be saved.
The first image of the Eden Tree Series sets the foundation: a vision of balance and wholeness…The first image of the Eden Tree Series sets the foundation: a vision of balance and wholeness. The tree rises in the foreground, stable and luminous, standing in harmony with the sky above. Its presence feels iconic, almost archetypal — not merely a tree, but the symbol of nature’s equilibrium.
The steps leading toward it remind us that harmony is not effortless: to reach what is good and true requires sacrifice, work, and perseverance. Light and shadow are held in tension without conflict, while tones of green and gold flow with quiet contrast, suggesting a world where creation is at peace with itself. The image evokes stability and timeless continuity, as if we are seeing the tree of origin — unbroken, still standing in plenitude, yet reminding us that every ascent toward balance is a path we must climb.
In Eden Tree II, the tree has grown immense — larger than life, reaching toward a prodigious sky. Surrounded by clouds, it dominates the frame with an almost mythic presence, as if it were striving endlessly upward.
Yet this grandeur carries a hidden tension: growth without measure becomes imbalance. The tree’s ambition, its hunger for more and more, reflects humanity’s own restless desire to expand. For now, no harm has come — the scene feels triumphant, even majestic — but beneath the surface lies a warning.This is the most epic of the four, evoking awe and reverence. The image suggests that beauty and excess can exist together, but it leaves us to wonder how long such magnificence can remain in harmony before tipping into destruction.
In Eden Tree III, darkness has entered. The blue sky has collapsed into shadow, swallowing the upper world. Against this vast void, the tree appears smaller, fragile — yet it burns brighter, as if refusing to be extinguished.
The scene is harsher, stripped of harmony. Every contrast is sharper: light against blackness, gold against void. Here the balance is broken, and the struggle of nature against darkness becomes explicit. The image reminds us that greatness is not always found in size or dominance, but in the persistence to resist, however small. This work evokes resilience — the sense that even when the world is overturned and the sky itself turns hostile, a spark of life can still shine defiantly.
Eden Tree IV, the tree has finally prevailed. Light returns, the atmosphere softens, and balance is restored — yet it is not the same balance we saw in the beginning. The tree now carries the weight of its struggle, marked by the darkness it has endured.
This is no longer innocence but resilience: harmony reclaimed, not given. The softened tones and luminous aura speak of renewal, but also of transformation. Victory here is quiet, contemplative, less about triumph than about survival and wisdom. The image evokes the truth that after conflict, nothing returns unchanged. What endures is not what once was, but what has been remade through resistance.
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