The materials used in Andy Goldsworthy's art include wild-flowers, icicles, leaves, mud, snow, stone, twigs, and thorns. He has been quoted as saying, 'I think it's incredibly brave to be working with flowers and leaves and petals. But I have to: I can't edit the materials I work with. My remit is to work with nature as a whole'. Goldsworthy is considered the founder of modern rock balancing. For his ephemeral works, the artist mostly uses only his bare hands, teeth, and found tools to prepare and arrange the materials; however, for his permanent sculptures such as Chalk Stones in the South Downs, he has also employed the use of machine tools. Photography plays a crucial role in his art due to its often ephemeral and transient state. Goldsworthy says, 'Each work grows, stays, decays - integral parts of a cycle which the photograph shows at its heights, marking the moment when the work is most alive'.

This volume is a pictorial testimonial to that epithet.