Mementos
(After the Alameda Fire)
These images were born on the ancestral homelands of the Shasta and Takelma peoples, in Talent, Oregon. They show "mementos," burnt remnants photographed after a fire raged through thousands of acres in their small town and surrounding area, destroying 2,500 homes. I noticed how some simple materials had outlived others, such as porcelain and clay- despite their relative brittleness. I felt a familiarity within the cracked teapots and vases one wouldn't expect to survive such travesty. Once fully functional and sound, they are now with a new form and an open wound, some irrecognizable to their original molds. These mementos, mysteriously either revered or irrelevant to their owners and now ghosts of their homes, were all that was left for eyes to see, yet the grief was felt from the land itself. The cause of the fire is still undergoing investigation- you can visit the link below to view testimonies from residents, one year after the initial blaze.