Inspired by the philosophy of 19th Century writer Henry David Thoreau, Hughes spent two winters photographing trees in public spaces in central London. He views the resulting series as 'a forest built from accumulated memory and the ghosts of trees'. Each image is constructed by making multiple exposures on a single negative, creating atmospheric effects that evoke primordial forests. Thus, the photographs produced are luminous and painterly.

Hughes' landscapes are quiet and calm, yet retain a meditative presence. His photographs illustrate the fragility of our current relationship with the natural world. In Darkness Visible examines the traditional symbols and metaphors used in photography in order to portray the human sense of wonder before nature. It looks at the space between the world that people inhabit and that which nature still claims as its own, and in this intermediary space seeks to explore the essence of the human spirit and its relationship with nature.

Furthermore, the series presents us with an alternative to the oversaturated and over-stimulated media-driven world and offers the possibility, through isolation, of being open to the transformative powers of nature. In this sense, the central space in the picture plane can imply an openness to the forces of nature. Hughes feels that environmental awareness has heightened our sensibility towards the beautiful and sublime in local nature. He further posits that: 'While the land carries the tale of its own destruction, it continues to present alternatives for the future'.