The Rim Fire Aftermath

The Rim Fire Aftermath is a large fine art photography project documenting the aftermath of the 2013 Rim Fire in the Stanislaus National Forest. This horrific fire, the fifth largest fire in California’s history, decimated 402 square miles of forested environment. What remains in the aftermath of this fire are stands of charcoal trees and scorched earth. There is an austere beauty to these images and at the same time it rips at our hearts in realizing the vast devastation that was created by the hand of a human.

I have returned to the area numerous times for over a year, photographing right after the fire as well as with winter snow blanketing the scorched forest. The images are printed as platinum/palladium/gold split toned Kallitype prints. This printing technique dates back to the late 1800’s. It is a ferric oxalate/silver nitrate process, which is toned with platinum/palladium and gold. This gives a warm, black tonality to the mid-tones and highlights, and a rich blue black in the deep shadows and blacks of the image. This type of alternative photographic process enhanced the desolate beauty in the images of the Rim Fire. In addition, burning the prints further treated many of these final images. This additional treatment to the images served to bring a powerful emotional connection to the visual scars of the landscape seen in the prints. The act of a human being burning and partially destroying these very beautiful and valuable prints also connects back to the destruction of this magnificent landscape by the Rim Fire, also caused at the hand of a human.