FORAGE FROM FIRE
The Forage From Fire series includes images of objects rescued from the home and studio of photographer Norma I. Quintana. On October 8, 2017, the Atlas Peak Fire roared through their neighborhood, burning their home to the ground. Days after the smoke cleared, Quintana’s documentarian instincts kicked in and she started making work with remnants she salvaged from the ashes. Framed by the black plastic gloves issued for fire clean-up, the sequence of images includes jewelry, camera bodies, Christmas ornaments, pendants, doll parts, kitchen tools, and picture frames. More than documenting a loss, her new project provided inspiration to others recovering from trauma and put life into perspective.
Forage From Fire is currently included in the exhibition Facing Fire: Art, Wildfire, and the End of Nature in the New West at the California Museum of Photography in Riverside, CA.
“Norma I. Quintana, meanwhile, builds a photographic memorial to her house and studio consumed by Napa’s 2017 Atlas Peak firestorm. She registers her loss by documenting seventy charred objects sifted from the powdery ash—charcoal husks of cameras bodies, slumped remnants of rings, a bisque doll hand. In the end, though, what Quintana chronicles is spirit, resilience, and the abiding persistence of memory. ”
