Untitled (Marshall Fire: Aftermath Ashes #6560) copyright 2022 Douglas Stockdale –
This is my third post (here and here) related to the Marshall fire that occurred two years ago in Boulder Colorado. Maybe this is not the most uplifting subject to end the year with, while perhaps the most realistic regarding the times we live in. This was not how the 1,100+ families who lived in Boulder had anticipated ending the 2021 year either.
As I was working on developing this project over the holidays, I was also wondering how best to present this body of work. I don’t think of myself as a documentary photographer per se, while I do concede that I am an observer. Hopefully a keen observer. Thus, the images may appear to be documentary in style while I am trying to stay visually objective and somewhat emotionally passive.
While working on this Marshall Fire series, I recalled Chris Jordan’s photographs in his 2006 photobook “In Katrina’s Wake“, a book I that had reviewed almost 15 years ago. He photographed the ravaged urban landscape of New Orleans following the massive category 5 hurricane that hit this southern region of the United States in 2005. His color photographs provided a dispassionate and straight forward view point of the results of this urban disaster. Perhaps why I am choosing to represent my series in black & white as I did find Jordan’s use of color as being poetic images that seem distracting from the potential narrative. Nevertheless, interesting in how a book of photographs can have a lasting visual impact, so perhaps his visual treatment of this project was not too far off the mark.
I think I have now developed this project and I will come back to it later in 2024 to tweak the images one more time. Meanwhile, I will now focus on where to submit for publication and exhibition, as I have to spend more time on my Entanglement cyanotype project right now. For reason’s I will explain soon…
As to the New Year, I still have hope that we can turn around and make changes to correct climate change and the increasing global warming of our collective oceans. Something that each of us can do is to Vote for those who have a political platform to combat climate change, while doing what we can to reduce, reuse and recycle.
Make every day an Earth Day
Doug
Btw, take note of the update on my Book Workshop in January with SEC4P: only ONE spot left. This workshop sells out every time…just saying if you are interested in a developing a book as a part of your New Year’s resolution!
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Book development workshop:
Update: Only one spot still available!: Developing a Creative Photo Book, on Zoom with SouthEast Center for Photography (SEC4P), January 20 & 21st and 27th, & 28th, 2024, from 10 AM – 1 PM, Eastern Standard Time (EST).
Book Making with Douglas Stockdale, on Zoom with Medium Photo, March 16-17 & 23-24th (4 sessions, two consecutive weekends), 2024, from 9am-12pm (Pacific Standard Time).
Artist book available:
The Flow of Light Brushes the Shadow, an artist book from Singular Images Press, 2022, $60.00 (CA sales tax for those residing in the USA) plus shipping expenses. Message me douglas.stockdale.artist@gmail.com
Singular Images 