the yellowstone fires, 20 years later

It seems a lot of my recent posts have had some­thing to do with fire. Liv­ing in South­ern Cal­i­for­nia dur­ing the fall, fire is a con­stant worry at the edges of the city. This year saw some bad exam­ples, but we’ve got our fin­gers crossed that the worst is over.

When I vis­ited Yel­low­stone last spring, reminders of the mas­sive 1988 fires were every­where, with fire-downed trees still to be seen through­out the park. But there were also signs of recov­ery every place you looked. Some places the fire looked like a dis­tant mem­ory, other places it looked like only last month, a reminder that in a land dom­i­nated by cold and snow much of the year, recov­ery can come slowly.

I took a lot of tourist pic­tures that trip. I also turned the cam­era on some of the acres in the park where the burns were still a strong pres­ence. Four of the images will be part of the upcom­ing 2009 Juried Bien­nial Exhi­bi­tion at the William D. Can­non Art Gallery in Carls­bad, in North-County San Diego. The jurors of this year’s show, Stephen Hep­worth, Cura­tor of the Uni­ver­sity Art Gallery at UCSD, and Sue Green­wood, Direc­tor of Green­wood Fine Art in Laguna Beach, selected forty-eight works by twenty-seven artists.

The pub­lic open­ing is Decem­ber 13, from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m., and the show runs through February7 of next year. It’s a city-run space and is attached to the pub­lic library. Admis­sion is free. Stop by if you’re in the neighborhood!

Burned Slope #2, Yellowstone National Park (Yellowstone Burnscap

Burned Slope #2, Yel­low­stone National Park (Yel­low­stone Burnscap

Here are a cou­ple of the images that will be in the show. The first, “Burned Slope II,” fea­tures a site in the north of the park where recov­ery seemed just about the slowest.

A pho­to­graph can describe things clearly. You can see the slow decay of the wood, along with sub­tle signs of regeneration.

But I’m also inter­ested in a pho­to­graph that can reach for things that aren’t at all about quan­ti­fy­ing the world. I like how the slope here gives you a sense of simul­ta­ne­ously look­ing down on the scene as well as out across it, mak­ing the space–and maybe even time–seem ambigu­ous, like a puz­zle need­ing to be worked out slowly.

Hoop on Burned Tree, Yellowstone National Park (Yellowstone Burn

Hoop on Burned Tree, Yel­low­stone National Park (Yel­low­stone Burn

The sec­ond, “Hoop on Burned Tree,” was shot behind the employee hous­ing near Tower Falls. The scene made me laugh. When life give you fire and burned trees, well, why not take advan­tage of a dif­fi­cult sit­u­a­tion and make your­self a bas­ket­ball court next to a scorched pine?

December 04 2008 05:18 am | Categories: art • landscape • photography • places | Tags: • • • •

4 Responses to “the yellowstone fires, 20 years later”

  1. Greg on 06 Dec 2008 at 1:46 pm #

    Con­grat­u­la­tions on hav­ing your work selected for inclu­sion in the show. Of course, it’s no real surprise…these are some pow­er­ful images.

  2. lostlandscape on 06 Dec 2008 at 4:33 pm #

    Thanks, Greg. Shows like this are always a bit of crapshoot…Art is always so subjective…who knows what peo­ple will like?

  3. [ Lost in the Landscape ] » up the coast in the rain on 14 Dec 2008 at 5:19 am #

    […] Post on the work in the show The Can­non Gallery Share: […]

  4. Philip on 14 Dec 2008 at 6:27 am #

    Con­grat­u­la­tions! My com­pli­ments on your work! I wished I looked at this more closely, earlier.

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