About the Image(s)

This is called the singing ringing tree and is a sculpture in a series of art installations along a river valley in Lancashire.
The Singing Ringing Tree is a wind-powered sound sculpture resembling a windswept tree set in the landscape of the Pennine hill range overlooking Burnley, in Lancashire, England.
Completed in 2006, it is part of the series of four sculptures within the Panopticons arts and regeneration project created by the East Lancashire Environmental Arts Network (ELEAN). The project was set up to erect a series of 21st-century landmarks, or Panopticons (structures providing a comprehensive view), across East Lancashire as symbols of the renaissance of the area.
Designed by architects Mike Tonkin and Anna Liu of Tonkin Liu, the Singing Ringing Tree is a 3-metre (10 ft) tall construction comprising pipes of galvanised steel which harness the energy of the wind to produce a slightly discordant and penetrating choral sound covering a range of several octaves. Some of the pipes are primarily structural and visual elements, while others have been cut across their width enabling the sound. The harmonic and singing qualities of the tree were produced by tuning the pipes according to their length by adding holes to the underside of each.

When we were there, it was windy and the tree was singing ??“ a weird sound permeating your whole body as you walk round it. It was quite a walk ??“ for me- from the road but worth it. It stands on the side of the moorland so it is possible to get it against the sky and that day it was also cloudy. In fact as we got back to the car, the heavens opened and we realised how lucky we were because the area is exposed and the rain and wind there would have been horrible.

I exposed for the sky and then brought back the shadows on the sculpture in Lr. I changed to mono, raised the clarity and dehaze until it looked the best between foreground and sky. I’d made Brian hide behind me so there were only fence posts for scale. It looked wrong with a person.