VN #075: Forest Fire Skies
Published: June 8, 2025

Forest Fire Skies

With forest fires on the minds of most Canadians, I am sharing a short story about the 2017 fire that swept through our Cariboo region of central British Columbia, and the photographic project I initiated.

2017 Forest Fire

I made this image from a viewpoint near our home. The fire was intensifying, flames were exploding hundreds of feet above the trees, and daytime was becoming nighttime as thick smoke moved across the landscape.

We were evacuated, and ten days later when fortuitous winds changed the fires direction and the magnitude of the fire subsided, we returned with a deep sense of gratitude.

 

Forest Fire Skies:

Intense emotional responses to this experience remained for weeks, and during this time, I decided to express these feelings through my photography.

From the garden in front of our home, where my memories and emotions remained dominant, I began a series of photographic expressions which I called ‘forest fire skies’.

The dominant emotional themes were wind, heat, flames, colours, and altered forests.

Forest Fire Sky I

Forest Fire Sky II

Forest Fire Sky III

Forest Fire Sky IV

Forest Fire Sky V

Forest Fire Sky V was made a year later while driving across the Chilcotin Plateau to Bella Coola. When the scars from a different fire brought back powerful memories of the 2017 fire near our home, I stopped my vehicle and began to make images of how I imagined it might have looked a year earlier.

Photography is a powerful language of human expression.

 

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