The Multicultural Heritage Centre and Wild Skies Art Gallery present:
"The Giving Trees"
AN EXHIBITION OF THE DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHY OF ALBERTA ARTIST ANGELA BOEHM
July 25 – October 22, 2021
This exhibition is presented during Alberta Culture Days and Month of the Artist in September 2021 at the Multicultural Heritage Centre and Wild Skies Art Gallery.
Multicultural Heritage Centre [ Ссылка ]
Wild Skies Art Gallery [ Ссылка ]
Exhibition Description:
The Giving Trees” by Angela Boehm is a photographic exhibition portraying forests post-burn covering a 25-year timeline of fires. The images share both the ephemeral repose of a burned forest and the strength of its regeneration. Images are from forest fires started by lightening during the years 2003 to 2020 in various locations in Alberta and BC.
Recent fires in Alberta near residential areas have been disastrous for communities. It has put us all on edge with concern for fires, including in our forests. The narrative around fires has shifted to one that all fires are disasters. For decades policies have prevented forest fires, producing highly flammable homogenous forests, where the dominant species chokes out much of the variety of life. In prior eras, fire was one of the prominent renewal disturbances of forests.
The narrative surrounding forest fires is deserving of adjustment – one that is balanced with the “good fires,” an integral part of forest life. As a documentary photographer, conveying this positive message is Angela Boehm’s motivation to carefully photograph forests following fire in various stages of regeneration for others to witness. Working with researchers at both the University of Alberta and the University of Calgary, as well as informing herself through interviews with fire management personnel in our parks, and interviewing those with knowledge of indigenous fires practices, Boehm has come to see that fire is yet another process in nature, with its own unique beauty. That the lightning strikes in our forests are part of their cycle and are the impetus of much new life.
To find these areas where fire has started renewal, Angela Boehm packs up her 4×4 and heads deep into the uninhabited areas of Alberta. Using a combination of fire access roads and logging roads, she ventures as deep and remote as she can before heading out on foot. Once there, with a pack of cameras on her back, Boehm wander into these burned forests and lets them show her and her camera how life is returning. She is frequently awe struck by yet another beauty in nature, one much less appreciated. Her eye, and by extension her camera, are drawn to the charred remains of a forest. The silence that accompanies it is unique, no leaves in the breeze, no birds in a nest. Nature intended this temporary silence, and, as an artist, Boehm is grateful for having experienced it.
It is Angela Boehm’s intent through this project that many come to remember how fire is a part of nature, how it is not the end of life in the woods but the beginning of a renewing process that will spark rapid growth of many species. It is her hope that when people hear of fire in the forest they can pause and consider the life that will spring forward.
Angela Boehm Artist Bio:
Angela Boehm is a documentary photographer who works on long-term projects. She is known for her exploration of generations; teenagers, midlife and seniors. In building these projects her emphasis is on creating empathy for those she collaborates with and their stage of life, quietly exposing what it is like to be in their world.
During the time of Covid, Boehm turned her focus to a different kind of portraiture, with forest as subject, documenting their recovery after fires. Her work “The Giving Trees” has been exhibited in Calgary at cSpace Gallery, at InFocus Festival in Edmonton, and at London Photo Festival in the UK. She is currently working on a book of this work.
In 2021 Boehm was the recipient of Exposure Festival – Emerging Photographer Award; InFocus Film Festival, Landscape Award; and London Photo Festival, Landscape Competition Award. She has exhibited her work in solo and group exhibitions internationally.
Boehm grew up on a farm in Saskatchewan and holds a degree in Business. After retiring from a successful career in business and philanthropy, she turned to photography. Boehm has travelled the globe to make her images, and has studied photography at International Center for Photography in New York. She was recently accepted into the Magnum Photos Mentorship Program.
Music By:
PabloGaez
Nature sounds via Pixabay
