Alan McFetridge makes photographs, books and public projects about landscape fire, ecology and memory.
His long-term projects trace how fire reshapes land, memory and public life. Working through field research, exhibitions and publications, the work asks how communities live with climate change, ecological transformation and the changing role of fire in the twenty-first century.
Fire North : Book One
A photographic monograph on the aftermath of the 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire, bringing together field photography, satellite imagery, essays and community testimony.
Alan McFetridge, Speak to me of yourself first, 2016 ©Alan McFetridge
From Fire North: Book One, Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada.
Fire North: Book One was made in relation to Fort McMurray | ᓂᐢᑕᐋᐧᔮᐤ | Nistawâyâw | Ełídlį Kuę́, within Treaty 8 Territory: the traditional lands of the Cree and Dene, and the unceded territory of the Métis people. I acknowledge my responsibility as a visitor, artist and witness, and approach this work in the spirit of respect, reciprocity and reconciliation.
Fire in Australia
In Australia, Alan McFetridge witnessed two ends of the anthropogenic fire story: fire as regenerative land care, and fire as a climate-driven atmospheric event. The project brings together fieldwork on Indigenous fire knowledge, scientific burns and the aftermath of the Black Summer fires.
Healing Flame: Fire as an Ally is a collaboration on regenerative fire, Indigenous fire knowledge and scientific burns in Tasmania. Placed alongside Pyrocumulonimbus Super Outbreak, made during a 5,000-kilometre journey through the aftermath of Australia’s Black Summer fires, the work traces two ends of the Australian fire story: fire as ecological ally, and fire as a climate-driven force moving through land, forest and atmosphere.
Alan McFetridge, view over Wadbilliga National Park, New South Wales, 2020
Made during fieldwork after Australia’s Black Summer fires, when fire moved through forests, national parks and atmosphere on a continental scale.
Made in relation to Yuin Country in south-eastern New South Wales and lutruwita/Tasmania, where fire carries long histories of land care, cultural knowledge and ecological responsibility. I acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the continuing custodians of Country, and approach this work in a spirit of respect, reciprocity and learning.
Project Archive
I A chronological index of photographic studies, books, exhibitions and fieldwork, tracing the development of Alan McFetridge’s long-term work with landscape fire, ecology and public memory.
Ten Year Arc (2026)
Sensing Earth | Artist Residency (2026)
Residency Log 2025
Holland Park Artist Residency
Fire Clouds, Canada (2023)
Harvest (2022)
Fort McMurray Burn Scar (2022)
Fires of Innocence (2022)
Dormant Legacy of Fire in the British Landscape, 2022
Antiquity in the Pyrocene (2021-2023)
Pyrocumulonimbus Super Outbreak: Aftermath of the Black Summer Fires, Australia (2019–2020)
Carbon
Night of The Bull Spirit (2020)
Dust & Shadows, 2020
I Am Transforming. (2020)
Healing Flame: Fire as an Ally Lutruwita/Tasmania. (2019)
Dead Reckoning
Skeleton Island
Synchronicity (2018 - 19)
The River Derwent and Hobart Town, Lutruwita (c1831- 2019)
Separated by Meters, Australia (2018)
On The Line (2017) - Short Film
On The Line (2016 -2017)
Fire North: Book One
Fault Line
Pyrograms
Cryograms
Lumsden Hotel, Southland, New Zealand
Motutapu
The Great Western Domestic
Future Strata
Balfron Tower, London, UK
Street Kids
Sunday Best (2015)
Selected Awards, Funding, Features, and Publications:
2024: Judge for the Environmental Category, Association of Photographers, U.K.
Solo Exhibition at Lauderdale House, London, U.K.
2023: Launch of the Centre of Ecological Philosophy and East London SuperLab, U.K.
2022: Songs of the Dead, published in Sophia Journal, University of Porto, Portugal
Finalist for the Marianne Brandt Award, Germany
Nominated for the Falling Walls Breakthrough of the Year - Art and Science, Germany
5 Nominations for Prix Pictet: The global award for photography and sustainability
2019: Featured in The Guardian – After Fire
Book launch for On The Line, Australia
2016: Royal Photographic Society Environmental Bursary, worldwide