Fire Ghosts
By Philip Metcalf and Patricia Galagan
With an introduction by Katherine Ware and essays by William de Buys, and Craig D. Allen
George F. Thompson Publishing
Fire Ghosts is the result of a seven-year photography project revealing the fiery destruction of a New Mexico forest and its regeneration as it adapted to climate change. In 2011, the Las Conchas fire burned 156,000 acres in the Santa Fe National Forest; it was New Mexico’s largest wildfire up to that time. Since then, massive tree-killing fires have become more frequent in the American Southwest and elsewhere as climate change plays out across the world.
The book comprises two portfolios; “Fire Ghosts", by Philip Metcalf, depicts the destroyed forest and “The Green Fuse” by Patricia Galagan, reveals its gradual rebirth as a changed environment.
“Fire Ghosts is a gripping poster for the Pyrocene.”
Stephen J. Pyne, author of Between Two Fires; A Fire History of Contemporary America
“Philip Metcalf and Patricia Galagan’s Fire Ghosts is an ambitious and impressive book. The ambition is in the belief that two artists can combine their distinctive sensibilities and visual styles to create one compelling narrative….The impressive part is that they succeeded.”
Sam Abell, photographer and author of The Life of a Photograph and Stay This Moment
© Patricia Galagan Photography