These are some images I made earlier this year in Griffith Park in Los Angeles, right after the big fire that left parts of the park completely destroyed. I went in the mid afternoon with my friend Peter, and we snuck into the park, through the zone marked by the fire department (LAFD, I assume?) and hiked up the hill.
Except for the image with the iconic Griffith Park Observatory, these pictures don't have much to do with the park, or the fire itself, but rather use them as the setting for my own thoughts and fears. In retrospect, I think having just finished Cormac McCarthy's The Road and far from home, the apocalypse in general was on my mind that afternoon, even in the gorgeous LA spring. Speaking to my friends Stephen and Andrew last week, Stephen called this work catastrophilia, and I can't really argue with that.
The other idea to come out of these images for me was the idea of how urban and suburban parks create strange interfaces between natural and human worlds. In particular, the idea of using arrangements of trees as windows has been something I've been pursuing this summer, shooting in a park in Long Island. More on that to come, as I start making prints from those negatives.
Thanks to Peter (other Peter) for making these scans in a pinch.
IMAGES
Los Angeles, 2007
Los Angeles, 2007
Los Angeles, 2007
Los Angeles, 2007
Los Angeles, 2007
Los Angeles, 2007
Los Angeles, 2007
Los Angeles, 2007
Los Angeles, 2007
