Luther Gerlach, American, born 1960
Burning Bush, 2018
Luther Gerlach is an American artist whose work engages with the physical processes of photography and emphasizes the natural world. He created a series of photos during the 2017 Thomas Fire in California that he developed with acidic water composed of ashes and sulfur from hot springs at the fire’s origin point. The inclusion of the fire’s chemical remnants produces a hauntological effect, recreating the destruction and transforming the image with licks of color that appear flamelike. This ghost of fire paired with a desolate copse (reminiscent of Paul Nash’s horrific paintings of the barren Inverness Copse destroyed by WWI), brought to the viewer through a highly chemical process, encapsulates the deeper political and industrial issues related to environmental injustices like wildfires. Through his photos’ contents and their development techniques, Gerlach demonstrates the wildfire’s long-lasting consequences and its initial flash, in terms of both the burn and our attention. Label by Tori Erisman