‘These photographs are part of a series begun in 2007 when I observed my first controlled prairie burn. I was immediately struck by the burn’s visual and expressive potential, as well as the way it evoked themes that are at the core of my photographic work. A controlled burn is deliberately set; its violent, destructive force reduces invasive vegetation so that native plants can continue to prosper. The elements of the burn—the mysterious luminosity, the smoke that both obscures and reveals—suggest a liminal space, a zone of ambiguity where destruction merges with renewal. These images of regenerative destruction have a personal significance - I photographed my first burn at the same time my sister began a course of chemotherapy - yet they constitute a universal metaphor: the moment when life and death are not contradictory but are perceived as a single process to be embraced as a whole.’ Jane Fulton Alt
Jane Fulton Alt (*1951) works as a photo artist near Chicago. She has received numerous awards, such as the Photolucida Critical Mass Award and the Humble Arts 31 Women in Art Photography Award. In 2009 she published her book ‘Look and Leave: Photographs and Stories of New Orleans’s Lower Ninth Ward’, which deals with the consequences of hurricane Katrina. You can also find her work in a variety of American collections such as the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, the New Orleans Museum of Art, De Paul and the Center for Photography, Woodstock among others. Kehrer publishing house published her current book ‘Jane Fulton Alt - The Burn’ – and is our recommendation of the week!
On her site you can find the following poem, which we were keen for you to see as well:
at the threshold
in a time of not remembering,
summer yields to fall,
winter to spring –
the fires burn.
surrendering to this world of dust and matter
i am home.
Jane Fulton Alt - THE BURN
Authors: Deborah Gribbon, Gary Gutting, Jane Fulton Alt, Michael Weinstein
Artists: Jane Fulton Alt, designed by Sam Silvio
Hard cover, 21 x 21 cm, 96 pages, 38 colour pictures.
English
ISBN 978-3-86828-401-0
Euro 36,–