In Loving Memory

Burned, gray, charred, vast, empty, desolate, ravaged, passage of time,  history, attempted healing, lack of growth, chemical abrasions, light leaks, dust spots, missing information, hazy, fallen, lonely… 

Originally meant to capture the devastating aftermath of the Colorado Hayman fire of 2002, In Loving Memory, quickly became about something more. Scars from the fire which occurred almost two decades ago have barely begun healing.  Through the use of 4x5 sheet film, these large scale black and white landscapes, both show and conceal the devastation and recovery of 133,000 acres of land. The chemical process of developing the film left unintended marks, and large patches of black or hazy edges, echoing the damage to the physical land, while also allowing for visual space to resonate with the pauses, left in the audio track that accompanies the photographs. 

Much like the restoration of a lost forest, there is a similar process of recovery for people. Albeit different for everyone, the process of recovering from trauma is something with which most people empathize. Drawing parallels between the healing of land and people, the black and white images of the desolate landscape are juxtaposed with a recorded reading of a letter that I wrote to my late stepfather, who died in August of 2018. The voice-over of a personal narrative of loss and recovery, breathes life back into the desaturated images, drawing the viewer deeper into the landscape. It is an invitation to pause, intently look, and draw connections between our own journeys out of calamities and the ways in which this landscape is working towards recuperation, in hopes of becoming more than what it was before.