Jesse Rieser on The Wallow Fire: Smoke Plumes and Blackened Earth

Phoenix-based photojournalist Jesse Rieser encountered the biggest wildfire ever recorded in Arizona. The Wallow Fire spread across Arizona and New Mexico, burning 841 square miles during the summer of 2011.

I came across the fire by chance. Driving west from Santa Fe, I saw it and I was mesmerized.

It was in May of last year that Jesse first encountered the fire. As he says, it memorized him; “the towering smoke plumes and expanses of blackened earth”—and he soon returned to capture the effects of the blaze.

Jesse spent five days photographing what this giant fire left in its wake. He focused his lens on shooting the unique beauty that comes from destruction. This new landscape was equally distressing and captivating.

I was drawn by the way the fire reshaped the landscape and the atmosphere, making it a surreal, deadly place where playgrounds stood empty, where tree bark turned to ash scales, where grazing land was charred to cinder, where the air swirled thick with smoke and heat.

Although Jesse has tackled a number of documentary series in the past, this was his first focusing on landscapes. He chose to focus, not so much on the fire itself, but the ways it altered the land it consumed. Jesse also documented the large force brought in to contain the flames.

To achieve the look and feel of the series, Jesse chose to shoot with film on a Mamiya RZ 67II and a Mamiya 7II,

I had been itching to get back to shooting color negative film. The tonalities of the landscapes and the desire to be as documentary as possible created the perfect excuse to go back to film.  The biggest challenge with his project, aside from the physical issues of being in a heavily contaminated location, was being patient with the film workflow and really spending time with the images in creating my final edit and narrative.

The photos were printed large-scale and have already been displayed in several galleries. Jesse has also created a limited edition, handmade book featuring the photographs.

I think this body of work may become a part of a larger project, exploring our choices and how we’re adversely affecting the land.

Jesse is currently in the Midwest creating a new series on the drought and its effects on farmers.

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