what i've been doing all of covid.. editing a lot of work...
it's been an intense weekend, going through and editing a huge portfolio of three "after the fires".. years 2015, 2017 and 2020 in sonoma county...
when my son moved to northern cali 11 years ago.. it was to be for a couple of years.. i knew then as i do now that he is embedded there.... and even if he were to move again.. it most likely will not be back to NY
what i didn't know, nor did he, is that evacuations and living under the threat of fire would be something he would contend with.. in fact the first 7 years there were no fires.. and no one thought about them, because they were not an issue or prevalent for that area in the past
roll forward to climate change.. yes there is climate change... hot temps, low rainfall and now it is very serious..every fall..
I remember the first fires... the phone call at 3 am.( i actually hung up on my son for not realizing the time difference, only to have him call again and again and say he is evacuating..( first fire) i remember sitting on my porch for two weeks listening to the radio and awaiting texts.. i even went out in the middle of the nite for a banana and cigarettes.. and i don't smoke.. and sat there chain smoking in fear
that year and all the ones that followed i always found myself there within 2 weeks after each fire.. ... friends of his losing homes... he evacuated, but coming back to the land.. behind the lines..... so much devastation the likes i had never seen before... up close and personal...... the heartbreak mostly of lost precious items of family connection and memories.. the displacement of lives, community.....
here in NY, the Northeast we may get a few storms. but nothing the likes of this..and not repetitively..... i wanted to bear witness and began documenting back in 2015
it's a robust portfolio that leaves you heavy in a swirl of devastating emotions just like being engulfed with the fire all over again...but there is beauty... and in the end there is also recovery.. a flower in the midst of charred ground.. and this time, (i just spent the last 5 weeks there) the green grasses and flowering trees emerging within devastation.....
i have much to choreograph, but it is with love and huge respect for all those that battle this again and again and all those that work tirelessly to save lives and property
