In March 2020 there was a fire at the edge of a large pecan farm, west of Vado NM and a short distance from the Rio Grande. The intense fire was visible from miles away. Two months later I returned, wondering what the remnants of this blaze had left. These are impromptu hand-held studies of what I found, a contrast of renewing life, heat-shattered stones, blackened pecan trunks and earth turning to charcoal. Everything is metaphor for everything else. 

I've had an interior dialog going on for some time regarding the 'perfecting' of images. Is there such a thing anymore as 'authenticity' or 'image integrity'? Digital technology allows us ever greater control in post-processing of photos. AI allows us to replace a sky with one click. But... how do we know when to stop altering images? And should we even start? I've been playing with the idea of not changing anything, other than basic contrast and lightness. So far I'm only playing with the idea, but with this photo project I did attempt to retain the basic reality of what I saw. There was one shot I liked very much, but a house was visible in the distance. I debated whether to crop the frame or take some other step to 'clean up' the image. I decided to leave the shot out, so it's clear I am still working with this idea of image 'authenticity'. In this Age of Instagram when seemingly flawless, stunning images appear in endless numbers, how do we react to 'basic images'? This is a dialog I'm very interested in having. 

Photography © Scott Weaver 2020. All rights reserved.