‘Women in Trees’ Celebrates a Quirky Collection of Anonymous Snapshots

As collector Jochen Raiß (1969-2022) scoured flea markets and antique stalls for the better part of three decades for snapshots, he began to notice a running theme. Over time, he amassed a trove of photos by anonymous photographers with an unusually high number of portraits of women posing in trees. Swiss newspaper Züricher Tagesanzeiger asked, “What are they all doing up there?” And German paper Der Spiegel posited that the arbor-climbing might be a “forgotten popular sport.” Whatever the reason, the mystery is nearly as fun as the photos.

A hardcover edition of Women in Trees from Hatje Cantz, published in German and English, follows two titles published in 2016 and 2017 that celebrate these quirky images. Find your copy on the publisher’s website.

a black-and-white snapshot of a woman in a tree

a black-and-white snapshot of two women in a tree

a spread from a book featuring two black-and-white snapshots of women in trees

a black-and-white snapshot of five women in a tree

the cover of the book 'Women in Trees' with a black-and-white snapshot of a woman posing in a tree

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