As reported on Wired.
- BY JAKOB SCHILLER
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Stockwell Ave and Bellfields Rd, Brixton -
Dewhurst Rd, Hammersmith -
Hoxton Sq, Hackney -
Danbury St, Islington -
Clapham Rd, Clapham -
Bayham St, Camden -
St Pancras Cruising Club, Camden -
Liverpool Rd, Islington -
St Matthews Rd, Brixton -
Crofton Park, Lewisham -
Regents Canal, Camden -
Laurie and Fergus, Camberwell -
Tree Farm, Newbury
‘Tis the season for Christmas trees. It’s hard to drive down the street and not see one strapped to someone’s car. Instagram, of course, is chock-full of decorated-tree pictures. For the next few weeks, everyone who celebrates that particular holiday will be fawning over these iconic holiday centerpieces until Christmas finally comes. Then, when it’s all over, they’ll be just as quickly forgotten.
The switch from adoration to rejection is the central theme of Jason Wen’s project A Christmas Cycle. After last year’s Christmas holiday, Wen roamed the nighttime streets of London making haunting, but beautiful, pictures of abandoned and decomposing Christmas trees.
“I first got the idea back in 2007 when I came across an abandoned tree in the street that still had ornaments and lights on it,” says Wen. “I was shocked by the complete disregard people had for the tree after Christmas was over.”
Wen says he’s not trying to condemn Londoners. In some neighborhoods he says the city offers curbside Christmas tree recycling and most people participate. In other areas, residents were happy to drop their trees off at a local park, where they were chipped and used in parks and playgrounds. Sometimes, however, residents couldn’t be bothered and simply got rid of the drying trees however they could. He found them in alleys, in a nearby canal and even high in another tree.
“I was definitely looking for the ones that were discarded unusually,” he says.
In addition to the dead Christmas tree photos, Wen also has a photo from a Christmas tree farm and several photos of trees in homes. He included these shots because he wanted people think about the cycle of the Christmas tree and, more broadly, about consumption. Usually, he says, the trees need three to seven years to mature. Then they’re used for a month and discarded. He says he’s not anti-Christmas tree, but he hopes the project reminds people of the enormous amount of effort it takes to produce most products.
“There’s definitely a message but it’s not something I’m trying to beat people over the head with,” he says.