Capturing the Aftermath of California Wildfires

The Paradise photo series by Maxime Riché (SEAS ‘05) explores the aftermath of the 2018 Camp Fire, a megafire that decimated the town of Paradise, California. The disaster left 86 dead and the once-thriving town in ruins within hours.

Reid Hall proudly announces the purchase of “Feather River Canyon,” part of the Paradise series. Other prints from this series were previously exhibited at Reid Hall at the occasion of a panel discussion with Riché and Columbia researcher Joshua De Vincenzo (a 2023-24 Faculty Visitor) on the invisible impacts of climate disasters. Read more about last year’s climate events at the Paris Global Center.

Riché’s powerful work has recently won the Prix Public Dahinden and will be showcased at the Paris Photo festival at the Grand Palais from November 6–10. Learn more.

Through the Paradise series, Riché captures the profound resilience of the town’s residents who, despite the brutal transformation of their landscape, have chosen to rebuild their lives amidst a looming threat of future fires.

Employing infrared slide film, Riché uses colors that appear to ignite the scene, a symbolic representation of both memory and trauma, as if the flames are still etched into the atmosphere and the people’s consciousness. The vividness of this film technique brings to life the psychological impact of living in a place where catastrophe is a constant shadow. Riché’s work examines the tenacity of individuals who face nature’s fury while grappling with the human-induced environmental crises that make such fires more frequent.

Each of the prints was crafted employing a non-toxic process derived from the gum bichromate technique, but replacing chemicals with non-toxic compounds, consisting of successive applications of layers of natural pigments on citrated gelatin and exposure to light. The black tones are achieved by applying a mixture of pine resin and pine ash collected in Paradise, California by Riché. Produced in collaboration with Maison Picturale, these prints hold the essence of the land they depict.

Maxime Riché (b. 1982, France) is a photographer & director who lives and works in Paris. His work revolves around a central question: how do we, as human beings, inhabit the world? In a line of work he defines as “speculative documentary,” he thus deals with our ability to adapt to the upheavals of our environment. He is a member of the board of the Columbia Alumni Club of France, and graduated with a Master of Science in biomedical engineering from Columbia in 2005.