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print this pageWildfire Prophecies: Entering the Pyrocene Era
Margaret Stratton
Saturday, March 21 - 3:30PM to 4:30PM
Atlanta 1
The title, WildFire Prophecies, is inspired by that foreboding sense that we now may be witnessing the ancient prophecy that in the final apocalypse, the world will be destroyed by fire. Wildfire Prophecies are studies of fire scars, illustrations of recovery over time, and documents meant to illustrate the sublime tragedy of wildfires to the American public.
Retired and back home in the Pacific Northwest, I re-enter the forests of my youth, now face-to-face with an unparalleled crisis: more and more of our forests are vanishing into char and ash. As a former Forest Service firefighter, I am astonished by the scope of the burnt forests. As my feet touch the blackened ground, I look around and see the silhouettes of lifeless trees. There is no heat or smoke, and it is strangely quiet. A profound sorrow fills my mind, and I am in awe by the other-worldly sense I am inside a ruined cathedral that will never exist again. I begin to see signs of life, but my heart still aches for the trees that lived here were five hundred to a thousand years old. When I make the photographs closest to my heart, I see a tragic, sublime beauty before me.
Through this work I am committed to creating an awareness the planet could soon be at a tipping point. As citizens of the world, we watch fires rage on television and the internet, destroying forest, place, home, planet. Soon there will be no place to go. I aspire to elevate climate change dialogue so that it fosters truth over political gamesmanship and inspires people to take positive action. Americans must understand this is not a distant problem, happening to other people, that other people must solve. Viewers can become witnesses, absorbing the nuances of fire damage in a photographic print. This is our home; this is the only home we have.
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