Tree Planters: Photographer Rita Leistner's Portraits in the Bush.

The Tree Planters is a striking series by award-winning Canadian photographer Rita Leistner.

A professional tree planter holds a shovel and a bag of saplings while working in a forested area, surrounded by tall trees and fallen logs. — Rita Leistner, *Bilal Basse*, 2017, 101.6 x 137.2 cm, pigment print on Hahnemühle Photo Silk Baryta Paper flush mounted to Aluminum Composite Panel, Courtesy of Rita Leistner / Stephen Bulger Gallery. © Rita Leistner

She captured large-scale, painterly portraits of professional tree planters in real time in British Columbia, documenting their “gruelling and heroic labour,” says The McMichael Canadian Collection where the exhibition runs July 5 through January 5, 2026

“Her work explores themes of human endurance, environmental stewardship, and Canada’s evolving relationship with its forests.”

A tree planter wearing a colorful headband and gloves kneels on a forest floor covered in fallen logs and branches, planting saplings in a rugged environment surrounded by mountains and blue skies. — Rita Leistner , *Lilly Anne Leclipteux*, 2017, 101.6 x 137.2 cm, pigment print on Hahnemühle Photo Silk Baryta Paper flush mounted to Aluminum Composite Panel, Courtesy of Rita Leistner / Stephen Bulger Gallery. © Rita Leistner

Here is the McMichael’s exhibition description:

Between 2016 and 2019, Leistner embedded herself off-grid with planting crews, living for months at a time in remote camps. Immersed in the physically demanding world of seasonal tree planting, she documented workers as they planted thousands of saplings each day across the rugged, clear-cut terrain. Her photographs reveal both the intensity of the labour and the resilience of the planters, transforming them into luminous, almost mythic figures.