I often wonder what attracts photographers, myself included, to environments that speak of – best case scenario – better days or – worst case scenario – that present serious destruction.  Think of war photography, or documentary photography of a decaying Detroit, for example, or portraits of a drug addict community under siege, homeless camps, derelict factories, you name it.

For some it might be the need to document a process of decay, or hint at the causal roots of it. For others it might be symbolism for whatever psychological message they want to share. For fine arts photographers it is often the sparseness of the subject, or a way to do the modern version of the Vanitas paintings of old. As the Encyclopedia Brittanica defines it: A vanitas painting contains collections of objects symbolic of the inevitability of death and the transience and vanity of earthly achievements and pleasures; it exhorts the viewer to consider mortality and to repent.

Well, I do not ask anyone to do either- to consider mortality or repent! I just felt that there was an intrinsic beauty to the burnt swaths of forest that I hiked through last week.

The Gnarl Ridge fire near Cooper Spur started in August 2008 because of lightning and was finally extinguished by October of that year, having burnt over 3000 acres of trees. Firefighters were able to rescue the few historical structures in its path by wrapping the buildings in flame-retardant materials.

The Dollar Lake Fire near Vista Ridge had a similar course: August to October, almost, and 6300 acres burnt. These are huge areas, visible still today, 6 years later.

Looking at the forest gives you the shivers, it is an alien landscape in its whiteness.  If you look at large swaths stretching into the sky below or above you it almost feels skeleton like. But all fleeting moments of morbidity disappear when you look at individual trees close-by. They feel pristine, as if wrapped in some silvery satin, glowing in the light, reflecting it, cleansed of bark.

 

 

Here is a link to a short clip on firefighting in Oregon’s forests. The people are mindbogglingly courageous.