I made these photographs in response to the climate-driven wildfires that engulfed parts of northern California in October 2017, taking the lives of 44 people, destroying over 10,000 structures and scorching over 250,000 acres of forest and farmland in Sonoma and Napa counties. For almost 3 weeks my thoughts were consumed by those who had lost their lives, their homes, possessions, and for some, their livelihoods.
I began by photographing at Coffey Park, a suburban section of Santa Rosa as part of the process of healing from the sense of vulnerability and tenuousness of life that most of us who survived the devastation had endured. As I wandered thru the rubble of lost homes, I imagined what the middle-of-the-night escape might have been like for those families who had occupied these homes.
My camera lens focused on the backyards: lawn chairs, dining tables, pools and tomato cages, and they told me stories of the people who had once lived here.
I then spent several more weeks traveling throughout the county recording other rubble and what was left of homes, wineries, and farm buildings. I was quite moved by the loss of the over 100 year old historic Stornetta Dairy and Creamery, a Sonoma county landmark for several generations. When I returned in 2018 to revisit the sites, I witnessed signs of re-growth and re-building in some areas, but for other areas, the debris has been removed and the land has been made ready to return to its originally state.
