Scene This: The Forest Around Duke

Duke has been described as a “campus in a forest.” On the ground, we walk around the campus every day taking great pleasure in the trees around us, but it takes an aerial view to understand just how true that statement is.

Bill Snead with University Communications and Marketing presents the evidence with this aerial photograph he made with a drone.

The image is a long distance view of West Campus from East Campus, approximately 1.8 miles away. Snead said the image was inspired by a 2018 essay developed by the landscape architectural firm Reed Hilderbrand in conjunction with Duke University landscape architect Mark Hough.

“Duke’s aspirational image of a Gothic ‘campus in the forest’ suggests a place set apart from a workaday world, where a civilized nature forms the background to a contemplative and creative sanctuary for life and learning,” they wrote.

Snead said to capture the image, he used a new onboard telephoto lens. “It’s a new feature for our office, which I employed during a recent shoot on Duke's East Campus to really show how West Campus indeed seems to rise out of its sylvan surroundings,” Snead said.