This essay explores the complex relationship between humanity and forests, highlighting how we have historically and currently quantified and managed these ecosystems. From the 17th century, optimizing forest yield was already a concern, mainly for uses such as shipbuilding and military defense. Today, this management extends to areas like paper and lumber production, assessed through profitability calculations. In the context of the Anthropocene, marked by a reduction in areas untouched by human activity, an awareness of the finiteness of natural resources, and climate change, the forest becomes a “central figure in environmental thought.”

This book aims to highlight the diverse ways in which contemporary photographers are able to reinvigorate our relationships with the forest, reviving our capacity to be affected by forms of existence other than our own. Dealing with forest ecosystems, their works also open up political reflections on land management, the exploitation of natural resources, and the extractivism prevalent in the contemporary world. They lead to a reflection on the forest as a common good – which they help to debate.