Portfolio > The Sawmill Fire 2017

The Sawmill Fire #3475
Pigment Ink on Cotton Rag Paper
varies
2017
The Sawmill Fire #3497
Pigment Ink on Cotton Rag Paper
varies
2017
The Sawmill Fire #3519
Pigment Ink on Cotton Rag Paper
varies
2018
The Sawmill Fire #3540
Pigment Ink on Cotton Rag Paper
varies
2017
The Sawmill Fire #3634
Pigment Ink on Cotton Rag Paper
varies
2017
The Sawmill Fire #3683
Pigment Ink on Cotton Rag Paper
varies
2017
The Sawmill Fire #3699
Pigment Ink on Cotton Rag Paper
varies
2017
The Sawmill Fire #3708
Pigment Ink on Cotton Rag Paper
varies
2017
The Sawmill Fire #3761
Pigment Ink on Cotton Rag Paper
varies
2017
The Sawmill Fire #3828
Pigment Ink on Cotton Rag Paper
varies
2017
The Sawmill Fire #3851
Pigment Ink on Cotton Rag Paper
varies
2017
The Sawmill Fire #3865
Pigment Ink on Cotton Rag Paper
varies
2017
The Sawmill Fire #3875
Pigment Ink on Cotton Rag Paper
varies
2017
The Sawmill Fire #3989
Pigment Ink on Cotton Rag Paper
varies
2017
The Sawmill Fire #4007
Pigment Ink on Cotton Rag Paper
varies
2017
The Sawmill Fire #4018
Pigment Ink on Cotton Rag Paper
varies
2017
The Sawmill Fire #4019
Pigment Ink on Cotton Rag Paper
varies
2017
The Sawmill Fire #4837
Pigment Ink on Cotton Rag Paper
varies
2017
The Sawmill Fire #4841
Pigment Ink on Cotton Rag Paper
varies
2017
The Sawmill Fire #4855
Pigment Ink on Cotton Rag Paper
varies
2017
The Sawmill Fire #4892
Pigment Ink on Cotton Rag Paper
varies
2017
The Sawmill Fire #4985
Pigment Ink on Cotton Rag Paper
varies
2017
The Sawmill Fire #4990
Pigment Ink on Cotton Rag Paper
varies
2017
The Sawmill Fire #5002
Pigment Ink on Cotton Rag Paper
varies
2017
The Sawmill Fire #5015
Pigment Ink on Cotton Rag Paper
varies
2017

The Sawmill Fire: Lessons from Hell

“The path to paradise begins in hell”
The Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri

The Sawmill Fire, originating ten miles southeast of Green Valley, AZ started on April 23, 2017. It was a human-caused fire that consumed 470,000 acres of tall grass, cacti and succulents, riparian woodland, mesquite and oak brush, oak woodland, pinyon and juniper. The fire was eventually contained in May, an effort that involved 800 personnel and cost 4.25 million dollars.

I began photographing the landscape of the Sawmill Fire in early July. In that landscape both the destruction of the fire and the recovery from the fire’s damage are visible. The earliest photographs clearly show the extensive damage caused by the fire with just a hint of a recovery beginning. Just a few weeks later, fed by the heavy monsoon rains, green vegetation is abundant, traces of the fire disappearing, recovery (with scar) rapidly progressing.

This continuing photographic project is not intended to tell or illustrate the story of the Sawmill Fire. Rather, it is about a landscape, a landscape for reflection. It is landscape as metaphor.

Gallery Talk on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0vTqCqJ3Xw&t=466s