Olivia Liv Milani is the founder of the project Women and Trees, which she sees as a collaborative project between herself and the wonderful women and trees she photographs. Liv is an artist, award-winning photographer, facilitator, planter of seeds, labyrinth maker, artivist, and avid traveller of inner and outer landscapes. This project springs from her deep love for trees and the Earth.
With the Women and Trees project, Liv wishes to raise ecological awareness, highlight the importance of female approaches to restoring our connection to nature and elevate women’s voices and presence.
In her practice, she explores the essential relationship that exists between people and nature. Through visual storytelling she invites us to re-member ourselves as nature.
Liv is the recipient of the Earth Photo award 2023 for her project Women and Trees, which was awarded the We The Forest award.
She studied photography at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London and completed a program in Forest Guardianship with Ubiquity University. She is a graduate of the Earth Activist Training taught by visionary activist and eco-feminist Starhawk.
The work of Buddhist teacher and peace activist Thich Nhat Hanh, as well as that of environmental activist and author Joanna Macy, and philosopher and writer Charles Eisenstein, has been greatly influential in shaping her ecological consciousness and inspiring her love of sacred activism.
Foundational in deepening her understanding of the Earth as a sentient living system have been the times she spent living immersed in nature and learning from earth-bound cultures and indigenous people. They still hold the understanding that the Earth is alive and sacred, recognising themselves as embedded in the continuum of life.
Liv’s ongoing aim is to bring ecological awareness that recognises our interdependence with the living world. She cares deeply about how we can re-establish healthy, respectful and reciprocal relationships with the wider community of life on the planet.
She has exhibited her work internationally and enjoyed collaborations with many gifted artists. A selection of her photographic work is represented by Millennium Images London. Her first book ‘Eastern Winds’, was self-published in 2021.
She sees art as a powerful healing force in the world that can inspire positive change, transcend cultural divisions and activate the imagination.
“Women and Trees has been growing inside me for a long time. The portraits were taken all over the world - from the Amazon jungle and the high Andes of Peru, to the red wood forests of California, to Spain, Italy and England. The project has organically grown and developed over time and followed me on my journeys, both literal and creative.”
— Liv Milani
“I see art as a powerful healing force in the world that can inspire positive change, transcend cultural divisions and activate the imagination.”
— Liv Milani