A Wildfire Lullaby #3

The idea of a Wildfire Lullabies series, both videos and photographs, was born in the summer of 2016 when Santa Cruz and Monterey counties in Northern California were experiencing extensive wildfires.

During the time of mandatory evacuations, more than 100,000 scorched acres, over 100 destroyed structures, with another 2,000 structures still threatened, the most outstanding sunsets could be admired.

Some called them marvelous. Some called them fantastic, or even supernatural. Under those new conditions, a new landscape has been formed. A scenery with a strong peaceful hypnotic quality to sooth and remind a viewer of the life/death transition.

In early October 2017, the unusually red sunsets returned. The cause? 250 wildfires that started burning across the state of California. The wildfires broke out throughout Napa, Lake, Sonoma, Mendocino, Butte, and Solano Counties during severe fire weather conditions.

And again, many people lost their lives, homes, loved ones. Air quality reached the "hazardous" level in the immediately affected areas, but, also, smoke from the wildfires had spread nearly 100 miles and impacted daily routine in the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Rafael. Wild animals in the burn areas were impacted and, often, displaced too.

And, then again, on November 8, 2018, the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California history to date broke out, the Camp Fire in the densely populated foothill town of Paradise, in Butte County, in Northern California.