Wavelength: Frequencies of Wildfire
It seems we’ve almost gotten used to forest fires occurring more frequently around the world, presumably due to climate change. Rebecca Najdowski’s work aims to counter this habituation and boost our engagement.
During the ‘black summer’ of 2019/2020, Australia was engulfed by massive forest fires, so intense that they were visible from space. Much of nature was reduced to ashes. But nature is resilient. Two years after the black summer, Najdowski returned to the area with special cameras capable of recording different wavelengths. If we look beyond our natural spectrum, to what is invisible to our naked eye, the process of recovery becomes tangible, and life appears to be returning beneath the blackened surface.
Najdowski’s images are alienating, exposing the recovery of wildlife in intense colours, contrasting hugely with the deep black. Najdowski creatively uses scientific methods to make us look at the climate crisis differently, with more empathy.
Rebecca Najdowski (United States, 1981) lives and works in Australia. She received her PhD from the University of Melbourne and engages in alternative ways of looking at non-human nature.
