Wright Auction

In the past, I have been able to photograph the glorious skies and views of the San Francisco Bay and Golden Gate Bridge from my deck. During the recent spate of fires, beginning in August, I have been confined to my home, and the photographs I make are taken from the same spot as the earlier series, but as dense smoke renders the Golden Gate invisible, I have focused on my more immediate surroundings. There were days when the smoke created day for night, post-apocalyptic views right out of a sci-fi Hollywood movie. The most obvious and undeniable culprit here is climate change, whose impacts are increasing at an exponential rate. The future has arrived.

In an interview given in her last years, Dorothea Lange beckoned the next generation of photographers to document civilization’s advancing effects on California, framing it as the New California. She couldn’t have anticipated climate change, but she was worried about the detrimental consequences of settlement and growth. This series is dedicated to her remarkable foresight.

RICHARD MISRACH