The Impermanence of Forests

Photograph of a fire in-progress captured with vintage film camera, printed on silk, and burned, with charcoal and ash remains from the scene depicted collected after the fire and piled below.

"In Western culture we traditionally view dualities—light and darkness, life and death, forest and fire—as opposing forces in an epic struggle of good vs. evil. We see ourselves as fighting to preserve life and subdue death by taming nature to prevent unpredictable disasters like wildfire.

My work explores the idea that these forces aren’t opposed, but rather part of the same continuous cycle. One can’t exist without the other. For thousands of years prior to settlement, low to medium-intensity fires burned frequently in many Western forests. Many native species are adapted to depend on fire or the diversity of habitat it creates. But as a result of past logging followed by decades of fire suppression, today’s forests are younger, denser, more homogenous, and less drought-resistant than old-growth forests. This forest structure combined with accumulated needles and branches on the ground provides fuel for unnaturally large, hot, ecosystem-destroying fires to develop during periods of extreme weather."

– Bryan David Griffith