Robert Voit has been shooting his New Trees project for seven years. But these are no ordinary trees.

Despite initial appearances to the contrary, they are telecommunications masts - made from steel, fibreglass and plastic - and winched into place across much of Europe, the US and South Africa.

"Initially I was researching a project on fake Christmas trees but as soon as I saw my first antennas I dropped everything else," says the German photographer.

This typological approach isn't surprising - Voit studied under Thomas Ruff at the Dusseldorf Art Academy.

He was also inspired by the New Topographics exhibition of 1975, which featured Bernd and Hilla Becher alongside luminaries such as Stephen Shore and Robert Adams and explored landscape photography that included manmade elements.

"I was very influenced by Bernd and Hilla, but I wanted to make images that looked forward, rather than looked back," says Voit.

"The Bechers were documenting a disappearing landscape. I wanted to do something that was very much right now. That made telecommunications masts the perfect topic. We all have mobile phones, so in a way we are all implicated in their existence."

New Trees will shortly be published as a book by Steidl.