A Photograph: Foresta Burn. 1994.

About the Photograph

Foresta Burn, Yosemite. 1994.

In 1994, on my first weekend in the park with the digital scanning camera, I spent a few hours in Foresta, where a fire had come though a few years before. It was awash in wildflowers, and the contrast between the new life and the burned trees was quite handsome. One particular photograph stood out from that day, and I made a 27x34 inch print which I has been looking at for years.

The photograph garnered many comments over the years, including an oft asked question as to what I did to make it. There seemed to be a disbelief that the wildflowers could be real without some sort of digital embeliishment. It was always a straight photograph.

Another dimension to the photo emerged about 2000, a friend and former student, Barbara Sheppard, who had purchased an 8x10 print of the photograph, came into my gallery, remarking how much she loved the image, particularly the deer in the photograph. I said “what deer?” and she proceeded to show me. I made the photograph, had been looking at it for years, and had never noticed the buck and doe sitting beside a tree. The power of the sheer resolution of this new technology was once again driven home.