Fire North: Aftermath

Above: My blood is related to them, ©Alan McFetridge, 2016
Archival pigment print 40.6 × 50.8 cm

Watching Fort McMurray evacuate brought back memories from my youth of coming home to find our family's farmhouse smouldering. Stripped back to its bones by fire. Memories of my mother’s grief at the loss of our home and precious family photograph albums are as distinctly vivid for me then as they are today.‍ I felt the need to go.

- ALAN MCFETRIDGE

About the Project

Fire North: Aftermath is a long-term photographic project developed in response to the 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire in Alberta, Canada. Bringing together field photography, satellite imagery, essay and eyewitness testimony. The project is an archive of the aftermath, the region's history and the changing place of landscape fire in its present and future.

First speak to me of yourself. 2016.
Archival pigment print · 40.64 x 50.8 cm — First speak to me of yourself. 2016. Archival pigment print · 40.64 x 50.8 cm

How much will you continue to transform? 2017
Archival pigment print · 40.64 x 50.8 cm — How much will you continue to transform? 2017 Archival pigment print · 40.64 x 50.8 cm

Earth remains free for tranquil souls, 2016.
Archival pigment print · 40.64 x 50.8 cm — Earth remains free for tranquil souls, 2016. Archival pigment print · 40.64 x 50.8 cm

My ancient gift is carrying your songs of return into the distant sky, and to say GOD. 2016
Archival pigment print · 40.64 x 50.8 cm — My ancient gift is carrying your songs of return into the distant sky, and to say GOD. 2016 Archival pigment print · 40.64 x 50.8 cm

Leap into red and yellow's rapture with both feet. 2017.
Archival pigment print · 40.64 x 50.8 cm — Leap into red and yellow's rapture with both feet. 2017. Archival pigment print · 40.64 x 50.8 cm

Flowering for the farmers heir and love, 2016
Archival pigment print · 40.64 x 50.8 cm — Flowering for the farmers heir and love, 2016 Archival pigment print · 40.64 x 50.8 cm

My blood is related to them, 2016.
Archival pigment print · 40.64 x 50.8 cm — My blood is related to them, 2016. Archival pigment print · 40.64 x 50.8 cm

My sorrow at dawn, 2017. Waterways, Fort McMurray. Archival pigment print 161 x 192 cm

Larch, 2016. Fort McMurray
30 x 21 cm. Archival pigment print. — Larch, 2016. Fort McMurray 30 x 21 cm. Archival pigment print.

Double-page spread from Section III,
Satellite imagery — Double-page spread from Section III, Satellite imagery

Double-page spread from Section II,
Eye-witness accounts — Double-page spread from Section II, Eye-witness accounts

Rid the forests of flame and slash and see my ash return. 2016
Archival pigment print · 40.64 x 50.8 cm — Rid the forests of flame and slash and see my ash return. 2016 Archival pigment print · 40.64 x 50.8 cm

I’m still by night and winter’s light. 2017.
Archival pigment print · 40.64 x 50.8 cm — I’m still by night and winter’s light. 2017. Archival pigment print · 40.64 x 50.8 cm

The advocate of death, advocate of renewal. 2016.
Archival pigment print · 40.64 x 50.8 cm — The advocate of death, advocate of renewal. 2016. Archival pigment print · 40.64 x 50.8 cm

Tower Road, 2016.
Archival pigment print · 40.64 x 50.8 cm — Tower Road, 2016. Archival pigment print · 40.64 x 50.8 cm

For scarlet there is devotion, for sacrifice there is heat. 2017.
Archival pigment print · 40.64 x 50.8 cm — For scarlet there is devotion, for sacrifice there is heat. 2017. Archival pigment print · 40.64 x 50.8 cm

Fire North : Aftermath

THE MONOGRAPH

336 pages · 150 plates
310 × 245 mm · Hardback
Artist's Edition of 7

FINE ART PRINTS

Archival pigment prints available by enquiry.
40.6 × 50.8 cm

Acquire a Work. Enquire about the monograph or an individual photograph.

Exhibitions & Publications

International Marianne Brandt Award - Finalist, 2022

Selected as a finalist for the 8th International Marianne Brandt Award, Connectedness: Experiments on a New Relationship with Nature.

Official Award Nominees · 2022

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Prix Pictet Fire Cycle - 2021

Five nominations for the Prix Pictet's Fire cycle in 2021, recognising photographic work made in Canada and Australia, including On The Line and Songs of the Dead.

Sophia Journal - University of Porto, Portugal

Songs of the Dead, an earlier presentation of Fire North, was published in Sophia Journal, an international peer-reviewed journal of the Faculty of Architecture, University of Porto, Portugal.

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For further information on this project please contact the Studio