Forest (Chinese: 森林) by Yan Wang Preston was made from 2010 to 2017 in Chongqing and Yunnan, China, tracing transplanted mature trees and constructed "natural" environments amid rapid urbanization.
Preston first noticed old trees waiting in plastic sacks on newly built public squares while photographing along the Yangtze in 2010. Her subsequent investigation examines how municipal greening, real-estate development, and ecological policy turn mature trees into commodities and signs of instant authenticity. In Chongqing, a "Forest City" program introduced ready-made woodlands into shopping districts, parks, and transport infrastructure. In Haidong Development Zone, imported vegetation, red artificial soil, and green plastic netting helped market an unfinished settlement as an ecological leisure town. These interventions raise broader questions about home, belonging, and whether urban nature can be manufactured.
The color photographs move between precise topographic views, tree portraits, crowded public spaces, quarries, and construction sites. Scarred trunks and severed branches appear against concrete towers, bridges, plastic wrapping, and newly laid soil. In Haidong, saturated red ground and green netting emphasize the gap between ecological appearance and living systems. Repeated compositions show woodlands in different years, while another sequence follows one tree from its village setting to its eventual death at an unfinished hotel. Across the series, an observational mood leaves room for ambiguity rather than directing viewers toward a single conclusion.
Preston returned to selected trees and sites from comparable angles and in similar weather, recording disappearance, decline, redevelopment, and, in some cases, the growth of transplanted trees into established woodland. She made about 400 large-format photographs on film and developed the negatives in the United Kingdom. Conversations with residents, tree transplanters, journalists, and environmentalists supplied further context. The final edit became a 65-image narrative combining photographs, captions, and text.
Forest received third place in CENTER's Curator's Choice Award in 2013 and First Prize in the 2017 Syngenta Photography Award's Professional Commission. Hatje Cantz published the monograph in 2018, followed by presentations at Three Shadows Photography Art Centre, Xposure, Side Gallery, the Canadian Centre for Architecture, and Cortona On The Move. Its Yunnan sub-series won the 2019 Sony World Photography Award for Professional Landscape. The Victoria and Albert Museum acquired the book and a print from the series.
