1997 (negative); 2003 (print)

Prairie Fire near Cottonwood Falls, Kansas

American, born 1944

Prairie fires, while crucial to the survival of the ecosystem, have long fascinated artists with their dramatic visual effect. This image—part of a series of photographs taken by Larry Schwarm over a twelve-year period—depicts one of the controlled burns still conducted in the Flint Hills of Kansas, the last stretch of a tallgrass prairie that once spanned 140 million acres in North America. From his distant and elevated viewpoint, Schwarm keeps viewers removed from the destructive nature of prairie fire, instead presenting a vibrant pattern of color created by the meeting of flames with land and night sky.