Amazon Deforestation

Victor Moriyama, Brazil

Amazon Deforestation, 2019

Victor Moriyama, a Brazilian photojournalist, focuses his work on South America and the Amazon rainforest. Moriyama documents social and environmental violence in regards to agrarian conflicts, deforestation and conservation of rainforests, genocide of indigenous individuals, and climate change. This photograph is part of Moriyama’s “Amazon Deforestation” project, which highlights how the Amazon rainforest is faring under the control of Brazil’s president, Jair Bolsonaro. Fire in the Amazon rainforest is primarily caused by humans as a result of ranching and logging, which can be defined as ecocide. This image is an aerial photograph, displaying how the scorched forest encroaches on the lush jungle landscape. The Amazon rainforest has an important role in regulating climate change and is home to diverse wildlife as well as thousands of indigenous people, which are all being disregarded and destroyed by fire for profit. Label by Elsa Rall

Sarah Meenahan of Rainbow Camp

Peter Bohler, Swiss-American

Sarah Meenahan of Rainbow Camp, 2017

This photo is part of a series for the New York Times titled “Inmate Wildfire Fighters” in which Bohler showcases the female inmates tackling California’s wildfires. Inmate firefighters elect to do this work, and get to live in a much nicer facility, but are still only paid $2 to $5 an hour to put their health and frequently their life on the line, with as little as three weeks of training (compared to the three years that civilian firefighters receive). Plus, it is nearly impossible for released inmates to then get a related job since LA County fire does not hire felons. Bohler’s photo series highlights a sort of power and even majesty that these women hold, while additionally raising some interesting questions; for instance, director of the A.C.L.U. National Prison Project David Fathi, speaking to Times journalist Jamie Lowe posits, “if these people are safe to be out and about carrying axes and chainsaws, maybe they didn’t need to be in prison in the first place.” Inmates, who make up a significant portion of California’s firefighting force, are paying both financially and with their health for the effects of climate change in California. Label by Laura Reitze

A Fire Story, page 10

Brian Fies, American, born 1960

A Fire Story, page 10, 2019

A page from graphic artist Brian Fies’s graphic novel, A Fire Story, that provides insight on his personal journey as an artist and displaced person after his home burnt down in 2017. Before becoming a book in 2019, Fies published A Fire Story online, generating massive support for his work and for the aid in rebuilding his community affected by the fires. Fies chooses not to color any of the debris and wreckage that his small figure walks through, depicting Hell here as a place with much to avoid. The figure is not heading to a place of refuge either, but rather seems to be preserving the life inside himself by finding a path away from things that were. Despite the bleak text and imagery, the figure moves forward, observing and seeking a way out of Hell. Fies’s work reminds us that the implications of wildfire often prompt personal trauma and that ways we internalize loss are difficult to conceptualize even with photographic evidence. Label by Kristin Rheins

Horses panic as a fire burns near Canberra, Australia

Brook Mitchell, Australian

Horses panic as a fire burns near Canberra, Australia, 2020

Sydney-based photographer Brook Mitchell’s images of the Australian bushfires and their aftermath illustrate the surreal visuals of a land ravaged by fire. The 2019-2020 fire season, thought to be exacerbated by climate change, was one of the most devastating in Australia’s history, destroying some 2,000 homes and killing about 30 people. The fires also claimed unnamed numbers of animal victims, both wild and farm animals like the horses fleeing flames at Tallabrook Lodge near Canberra. Besides calls for a better climate change response, Australian activists have expressed hopes for a return to aboriginal practices of controlled burns and fire prevention, which could provide a solution to future fire threats. Label by Sarah Roberts