Ernest Sanchez - Woodland Photography

Searching for the quiet narratives of the Southern Appalachian backcountry.

My process involves navigating off-trail, deep into the Appalachian mountain forests, to observe the relationships between trunks, ground, water, and time. These videos are unscripted, POV accounts of that journey, the physical struggle of the bushwhack and the real-time observations required to find an intimate landscape.

Influenced by Eliot Porter, I work entirely with natural light and organic textures. My goal is to remain within the forest, documenting the woodland without staging or intervention. Occasionally, the search leads to a photograph; most of the time, it is simply about being present in the backcountry.