Arch of green

The story behind the photo

Deep in the Huelgoat forest in Brittany, granite boulders lie scattered through the undergrowth exactly as local legend says they landed: hurled down in a fit of rage by Gargantua, the giant of Breton and Rabelaisian folklore, furious at the poor quality of the food he had been served. Some say the treasure Merlin entrusted to guardian spirits is still hidden in this forest, at the Camp d’Artus.

I reached the valley before sunrise in May 2023 and found it wrapped in mist. Overhead, the branches close into a continuous vault, and the light arrives already green, filtered by the leaves before it reaches the moss on the boulders. That morning, one shaft of early light broke through the canopy and traced a glowing arch over the mossy stones and the narrow path beneath. At that hour the beams come in almost horizontally at the far end of the tunnel, lighting the exit and leaving the near stones dark.

I framed upright and from low down, so that the arch runs the full height of the picture and the path beneath it narrows into shadow: a corridor of green with one bright opening, which gives the eye a direction before it gives it a subject. There is a stillness in this place that feels older than the trees around it, as if the forest were holding onto something it rarely lets anyone see.