Kevin Cooley, American
Swimming Pool, Woolsey Fire
2018
This photograph is a part of Cooley’s series Still Burning, which reimagines how fire impacts humans’ relationship with the environment. This piece depicts a lavish outdoor swimming pool overlooking the Woolsey wildfire in California. Cooley’s artwork questions the sustainability of living in a wildfire vulnerable area, along with the idea of materialism as a physical barrier between humans and the natural world. In this aesthetic yet harrowing photograph, Cooley juxtaposes a wealthy home with an uncontrollable disaster to illustrate the worthlessness of money against fire’s destructive force. This photograph demands our attention to the environment as it becomes more vulnerable to wildfires and urges the viewer to consider the importance of protecting our planet from wildfire disasters. Label by Bayleigh Albert