Women in Trees

Product Description

This little collection of some 50 vintage amateur photographs is a true gem “You know, I don’t know how one can walk by a tree and not be happy at the sight of it?” writes Fyodor Dostoyevsky in
The Idiot. Perhaps this sentence might explain the subject of women in trees that was so popular between the 1920s and ‘50s and has until now never before been assembled in a book. The enthusiastic collector Jochen Raiss discovered this motif during his flea market excursions. These photographs feature young women at dizzying heights who, at times, smile into the camera as if they were in love. The publication assembles the finds from this charming genre that Raiss compiled over a period of 25 years. Whether the women are cheerfully dangling their legs, casually nestling in the branch forks or athletically climbing to the treetop, each picture has its own story to tell.

Review

It all began at a flea market in Frankfurt, when photo collector Jochen Raib came across a picture of a woman wearing a summer dress and high heels. While she looked ready for a Sunday stroll, her delicate footwear was odd for what her photographer caught her in the midst of doing: climbing a tree….he has since amassed 91 such photographs, now collected in an endearing photo book simply titled Women in Trees — Thomas Voon ―
Hyperallergic

…all these women, nearly a century ago, sitting in trees like the boys they never were are riveting. — Idra Novey ―
The Paris Review

The very best [photographs] are those where the knowledge that she is doing something mischievous is written all over the climber’s face. She is giddy with it. Who knows what became of these women? But I like to think that, even if they were fettered by propriety every other day of their lives, just this once, they felt free. — Lucy Davies ―
The Telegraph