After the first ever “gigafire” (a fire burning more than a million acres) scorched California in 2020, local photographer Matt Black set off to capture how the landscape had been badly changed. The photographic techniques he employed were reminiscent of those used by Ansel Adams and other artists who made icons out of the landscape. But these methods were not up to the task, Black thought; they needed a new dimension to capture the immensity of the destruction. So he turned to thermal imaging, purchasing industrial-grade equipment to capture the Sierra Nevada after the the gigafire and subsequent blazes. He created images that continue the legacy of landscape photography in the Sierra Nevada but also show an entirely new era. These mountains are not just enduring; they are vulnerable. The approach gives his images of the familiar landscape a new sinister beauty.
The nonprofit National Geographic Society, committed to illuminating and protecting the wonder of our world, funded the work of National Geographic Explorer and photographer Matt Black. Learn more about the Society’s support of Explorers at natgeo.com/impact.
Artist Bios
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Matt Black
Matt Black is from California’s Central Valley, an agricultural region in the heart of the state. His work has explored the connections between migration, poverty, farming, and the environment in his native rural California and in southern Mexico for two decades.
In 2014, he began the project The Geography of Poverty, a digital documentary work that combines geotagged photographs with census data to map and document poor communities. In the summer of 2015, he undertook a thirty state trip photographing seventy of America’s poorest places, work that was published as a four part series on MSNBC. Other projects include The Dry Land, about the impact of drought on California’s agricultural communities, and The Monster in the Mountains, about the disappearance of forty three students in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero. Both of these projects, accompanied by short films, were published by The New Yorker.
Time Magazine named him Instagram Photographer of the Year for his Geography of Poverty project. His work has also been honored by the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Foundation, the Magnum Foundation Emergency Fund, the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, Pictures of the Year International, World Press Photo, the Alexia Foundation, the Center for Cultural Innovation, and others. He lives in Exeter, a small town in California’s Central Valley.
Organizations
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National Geographic
Representing one of the largest brands on social media with over 801 million followers and a billion impressions each month, National Geographic Content’s award-winning and critically acclaimed storytelling inspires fans of all ages to connect with, explore, and care about the world through factual storytelling. National Geographic Content, part of a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company and the National Geographic Society, reaches up to 402 million households in at least 170 countries and 30 languages across the global National Geographic channels (National Geographic Channel, Nat Geo WILD, Nat Geo MUNDO), National Geographic Documentary Films, and streaming services Disney+ and Hulu, in addition to being a global digital, social, and print publisher. Its diverse content includes Oscar- and BAFTA Award-winning film Free Solo; Oscar-nominated films Sugarcane, Fire of Love, Bobi Wine: The People’s President, and The Cave; Emmy Award-winning franchises Race Against Time and Secrets of; Emmy Award-winning series Animals Up Close and Trafficked With Mariana van Zeller; and Emmy-nominated series A Real Bug’s Life and Tucci in Italy, in addition to multiple National Magazine Awards, Pulitzer Prize finalists, and Webby wins. Visit nationalgeographic.com and natgeotv.com or explore Instagram, Threads, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok, and Reddit.
How to Photograph a Firestorm
Featuring: Matt Black
Locations
View Location Details Washington Street and Prospect StreetWashington Street and Prospect Street
DUMBO, Brooklyn 11201
Location open 24 hours
The views and opinions expressed in this exhibit are those of the exhibition artists and partners and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Photoville or any other participants and partners of the Photoville Festival.
