Beth Moon

Career

Beth Moon was born in Neenah, Wisconsin, and stud­ied Fine Arts at the University of Wisconsin. Her stud­ies in paint­ing, draw­ing, sculp­ture, and design estab­lished the foun­da­tion of her pho­to­graphic prac­tice. Moving to England, a coun­try with a deep appre­ci­a­tion for trees and land­scapes, gave her a new per­spec­tive on a land with one of the great­est con­cen­tra­tions of ancient trees. 

Visual Style

Inspired by these trees, Moon began cre­at­ing a series of por­traits ded­i­cated to them. Unsatisfied with the pho­to­graphic tonal­ity and long-​term sta­bil­ity of inkjet print­ing, she started exper­i­ment­ing with alter­na­tive print­ing tech­niques such as platinum-​palladium print­ing, a process ide­ally suited to her artis­tic vision. 

Works and Recognition

Beth Moon has gained inter­na­tional recog­ni­tion for her large-​scale plat­inum prints with rich tonal depth. Since 1999, her work has been pre­sented in more than 60 solo and group exhi­bi­tions across the United States, Italy, England, France, Israel, Brazil, Dubai, Singapore, and Canada.
Her work is included in numer­ous pub­lic and pri­vate col­lec­tions, includ­ing the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, the Museum of Photographic Arts in San Diego, and the Fox Talbot Museum in Wiltshire, England.
In 2013, Between Earth and Sky, the first mono­graph ded­i­cated to her work, was pub­lished by Charta Art Books in Milan. In 2014, Abbeville Press pub­lished Ancient Trees: Portrait of Time, fol­lowed by a third pub­li­ca­tion later that same year. 

Reading the Work

Beth Moon’s work finds its bal­ance in a con­tem­pla­tive approach to nature, shaped by mon­u­men­tal trees, the mem­ory of liv­ing forms, and refined pho­to­graphic processes. Her work is dis­tin­guished by a quiet pres­ence, excep­tional tonal pre­ci­sion, and a strong rela­tion­ship between pho­tog­ra­phy, nature, and per­ma­nence.
To fully appre­ci­ate her images, atten­tion should be given to sub­tle details: com­po­si­tion, dis­tance from the sub­ject, light, and tex­ture often reveal the depth and emo­tional res­o­nance of each work.