Green Silence - Daniel Kovalovszky

Daniel Kovalovszky's unearthly landscapes

Hungarian photographer subverts conventional landscape photography with uncannily uniform forest shots

The 35-year-old photographer Daniel Kovalovszky has been shooting forests for the past three years. Yet his series, Green Silence, are about as far from the woodland-glade clichés as you can get. 

 

Green Silence - Daniel Kovalovszky
Green Silence - Daniel Kovalovszky

"I had no intention to create conventional masterpieces taken from nature," says the Budapest-born photographer. "I didn't want to take advantage on the cheap chances nature offered. All I wished for was to give myself over to solitude, to the weird shape shifting of time as it was slackening its pace."

 

Green Silence - Daniel Kovalovszky
Green Silence - Daniel Kovalovszky

In his photos, shot deep within both deciduous and coniferous forests at different points in the year, natural arboreal formations take on unexpectedly uniform, near-abstract patterns - patterns that Kovalovkszky describes as "those perfect details of nature that are deeply hidden from our civilization."

 

Green Silence - Daniel Kovalovszky
Green Silence - Daniel Kovalovszky

After graduating from high school, Kovalovsky, who still lives in Budapest, studied portrait photography and photojournalism. He has been working as a photographer since 2001, shooting documentary work, which often deals with the ageing process and the legacy of Hungary's Soviet years.

 

Green Silence - Daniel Kovalovszky
Green Silence - Daniel Kovalovszky

Green Silence makes for a welcome break from the melancholy shots of declining local industry. "When I step into the land of trees ,then I can fully give myself over to this peaceful search, and abandon the manmade world," says Kovalovsky. Even if the pictures take on an unusually orderly form.

 

Green Silence - Daniel Kovalovszky
Green Silence - Daniel Kovalovszky

To see the images in full, go here. For greater insight into contemporary photography, order a copy of our new book, Photography Today. 

 

Green Silence - Daniel Kovalovszky
Green Silence - Daniel Kovalovszky