Van Pulley

Because of its durability, cypress is sometimes called “the wood eternal.” The living trees are also impressively enduring: In 2019, a North Carolina bald cypress was determined to be more than 2,600 years old. Yet few old-growth cypresses survive, a development that partly inspired Northern Virginia photographer Van Pulley’s “Tree Eternal.” The Multiple Exposures Gallery show comprises 21 numbered views of trees in the Caddo Lake bayou on the Louisiana-Texas border.

The muted-color photos effectively evoke the semiaquatic landscape and conjure a moist, hazy vibe. Cypresses are the central focus, offering strong vertical contrasts to the horizontally oriented pictures. Just as striking, though, are the mists that shroud the water line, sometimes ascending in vaporous columns, and the diffused light that streaks the lake’s surface and highlights the trees’ trunks and leaves.

Save for the egret in one picture, the vistas appear unpopulated, seemingly free from human intrusion. That, of course, is not true of cypresses in general. The trees are threatened by logging, habitat loss and saltwater intrusion caused by rising sea levels. While Pulley’s visual essay conveys an aura of endless serenity, the trees’ eternal survival is very much in question.

Van Pulley: Tree Eternal Through June 12 at Multiple Exposures Gallery, Torpedo Factory, 105 N. Union St., Alexandria.