Mark Ruwedel has been shortlisted for the ninth cycle of the Prix Pictet Award the global award in photography and sustainability.
The series LA Fires, 2017 -2020, is a series of photographs selected from Ruwedel’s four-part, in-progress project titled Los Angeles: Landscapes of Four Ecologies. The photographs document the La Tuna fire in 2017, which is considered to be the largest in the history of the city.
“‘Fire’ is the theme for the ninth cycle of the award. As Chair Stephen Barber explains, the choice of theme is timely. “Fire has hardly been out of the news since the inferno that consumed Notre Dame in Paris in early 2019. We have seen record rainforest blazes in the Amazon, forest and bush fires in Australia and conflagrations in California. It is the fourth element. Fire destroys and it renews. Fire means survival, renewal, and economic prosperity. Yet our abuse of this most capricious of elements is the source of most of our environmental woes.”
These photographs are currently on view in the exhibit ‘Prix Pictet: Fire’ at the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, Nov 20, 2021 – Jan 23, 2022.
Mark Ruwedel
1. Sepulveda Pass Fire #1, 2018
2. Verdugo Mountains Fire #2, 2017
3. La Tuna Canyon Fire Beekeeper, 2017
4. Installation view at The Tokyo Photographic Art Museum courtesy of ©︎Daisuke Takakura