"Being but men, we walked into the trees"  - Dylan Thomas

"Life and death in the woods" is a photographic project on a renewed relationship between man and nature. Photographers Margherita Nuti and Daniele Molajoli start this project in March 2020 during the months of the lockdown. As soon as they move to live in a small house surrounded by woods, in the protected area of Monte Ferrato, they embark on a real exploration of the surrounding area on foot. During the outbreak of the epidemic, they find themselves isolated but immersed in a natural environment, made even more wild by the total absence of man. Preferring the tangle of the woods to the beaten paths, they find themselves daily in close contact with the sound of the trees, the movement of animals, the sound of the wind and learn that in the woods nothing is useless and everything participates in a balance where life and death follow each other and correspond in a circular time. The photographers create a mapping of correspondences and analogies between inside and outside, protection and danger, form and disorder, traces that look like signs. An observation of nature where man finds his ancient origin. With a supply of film that lasts the entire quarantine, they work in the woods with a large format view camera and two medium format cameras, abandoning themselves to a slow gaze of natural phenomena where the trunk of a tree bleeds and the moon begins its revolution. The result is an intimate and geographical reflection on the forest, on the concept of wilderness, on the search for refuge and on the passage of time.