Rita Leistner: The Tree Planters

The Tree Planters is a striking photographic series by award-winning Canadian photographer Rita Leistner. Through large-scale, painterly portraits captured in real-time, Leistner documents the gruelling and heroic labour of professional tree planters in British Columbia. Her work explores themes of human endurance, environmental stewardship, and Canada’s evolving relationship with its forests.

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.

Using dramatic lighting and dynamic compositions, Leistner elevates scenes of physical toil into compelling visual tributes—portraits that highlight the planters’ deep, often spiritual connection to the land. Having planted more than half a million trees herself, Leistner brings a rare, firsthand understanding and deep reverence to her subject.

The Tree Planters stands as a tribute to the generations of Canadians who have reshaped the nation’s geography and contributed to its cultural identity—one tree at a time.

Canadian photographer Rita Leistner creates portraits of communities in extreme conditions—including soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, female patients at psychiatric hospitals in wartime, women wrestlers in the United States, and loggers and tree planters in Canada—exploring themes of purpose, struggle, and belonging.

Leistner holds an MA in comparative literature, was an adjunct professor of the history of photojournalism at the University of Toronto, and has planted over 500,000 trees in Canada. Her work is held in many major national art collections, including the National Gallery of Canada, the Canadian War Museum, The Image Centre at Toronto Metropolitan University, and the TD Bank Art Collection. She is represented by the Stephen Bulger Gallery in Toronto.