The Weight of Ash by Ian Bates is a haunting and contemplative photobook that explores landscapes shaped by natural and human forces. Bates’ images convey both the beauty and the fragility of these environments, combining striking compositions with an evocative, narrative-driven approach. The result is a visual meditation on memory, transformation, and the traces left behind in the world around us.
This fine-art photobook is perfect for collectors, photography enthusiasts, and admirers of contemporary European landscape photography. Bates’ careful attention to detail, light, and atmosphere makes The Weight of Ash a visually and emotionally compelling volume.
Between 2014 and 2020, Ian Bates traveled tirelessly along the West Coast of the United States. For years, he has photographed there a charred land suffering from increasing scorching wildfires. But, far from any voyeuristic dramatization, scarce are the depictions of the roaring flames, or of the fire’s fury. Rather, standing at a respectful distance, Bates photographs in rich black and white tones what is at the margin, the traces, the aftermaths. The beauty and horror of the landscape, too, enshrouded in a grey cloak of ashes and plumes. “There is a moment after a wildfire burns but before humans return”, says Bates, “where the land and forests are both beautiful and terrifying.”
BOOK DETAILS:
POEM BY CAITLIN LORRAINE JOHNSON ESSAY BY DANIEL GUMBINER 92 PAGES HARDCOVER WITH BLIND DEBOSSED TITLE DUOTONE OFFSET 10.5” X 12.5” ISBN: 978-1-952523-30-4
