On the line, 2019.
Within forty eight hours more than 1,850 structures had been destroyed. By the fifth week the fire had burned approximately 589,000 hectares of boreal forest. With an estimated $8.8 billion in damages, it became the costliest insured natural disaster in Canadian history.
These photographs were made six months later during the autumn of 2016.
Wildfire has long been part of the ecology of the boreal forest. Yet in recent decades fires have increased in frequency, severity, and scale as warming climates reshape northern landscapes.
On The Line reflects on this moment in time and the fragile boundary between human settlement and the forces that shape the forest.
Alan McFetridge
In May 2016 the Horse River wildfire forced the evacuation of more than 80,000 residents from Fort McMurray in northern Alberta, becoming the largest wildfire evacuation in modern Canadian history and the costliest insured natural disaster in the country.
The fire was first sighted on May 1, seven kilometres away, during an unseasonably hot and dry spring. Known as “the Beast” by the media, and simply as “the Fire” by locals, it became a major conflagration as it entered Fort McMurray on the afternoon of 3 May. More than 80,000 people fled along a single route in a single afternoon, Highway 63, the road seen beyond the trees in these photographs.
On The Line, 2016
Alan McFetridge
On The Line is presented as a photographic installation comprising nine images documenting the landscape surrounding Fort McMurray following the 2016 Horse River wildfire.
First Edition
Set of 9 archival pigment prints
Edition of 7 + 2 Artist Proofs
Framed print size
600 × 490 mm each
Overall installation size
1830 × 1500 mm
Frames are scorched and finished with tung oil.
Second Edition
Set of 9 archival pigment prints
Edition of 7 + 2 Artist Proofs
Framed print size
345 × 258 mm each
Overall installation size
1050 x 774 mm
Printed on Japanese Kozo paper using archival pigment processes.
Collections
Private and Daisy Green Collection.
Print enquiries
alan@alan-mcfetridge.com
Set of 9: 1830mm x 1500mm
On The Line | 1st Edition
Examples of the nine-part installation from On The Line.
Set of 9: 1830mm x 1500mm
First edition with charred frames
On The Line | Sold Out
Prologue and first edition, On The Line is available for purchase via our online shop.
On The Line, first print edition: Photographs and words by Alan McFetridge Edition of 1000, first 500 numbered 11 colour photographs.
Published by Here Sue, 2019 | Design by Duncan Whyte | ISBN 978-1-9164729-0-7 | H: 394mm x W: 330mm
Materials: Embossed soft cover, sewn cotton binding, 16 pages, end paper: Extract Khaki 300gsm by G.F Smith produced from recycled coffee cups, body paper: EU Ecolable Certified paper from the Scandinavian Boreal Forest, cover: Extract Flint 380gsm by G.F Smith produced from recycled coffee cups Ink: 100% plant based at Park Communications, London, Archival glassine sleeve, Foil, pigments and cotton
© Alan McFetridge
© Alan McFetridge
© Alan McFetridge
On The Line | Super 8mm Film
Still frame at 03:35 - On The Line. Super 8mm film transferred to video (colour, silent), 4:48min, looped. 2017
© Alan McFetridge
On The Line | NZ Photoforum Review
Auckland poet, Michael Steven's writes a compelling review of On The Line for Photoforum NZ.
“...There is a strange, melancholic grace in these images; one whose power contains multiplicities. Not only are each of these photos a spectacle of nature’s waning resilience, they reiterate our implication in the destruction of the natural world…”
You can read the full review here.