JESSICA HAYS
WHEN IT HAS GONE
Jessica Hays is a conceptual photographer, alternative process printmaker, and curator based in Montana and Chicago. Grounded in the American west, she explores relationships between people, places, and experiences of being deeply connected to ones surroundings. Her work blurs the lines between the uniquely individual and collective experiences. Hays works in a variety of processes including pigment printing, handmade artist books, video, and historic and experimental photo processes. Hays’ work aims to explore the long lasting effects of the land on human psyche from trauma to restoration. Following a wildfire in her hometown, Hays has been intensely focused on the aftermath of wildfires both in terms of ecological devastation and psychological impacts.
Tree Climber (video) is part of Hays’s project The Sun Sets Midafternoon, which examines the immediate aftermath of megafires on surrounding communities and what the experience of local fires are like, interweaving narratives of ecological devastation, collective trauma, and climate grief.
A Tale of Two Valleys (prints) is a collaboration between Jessica Hays and Todd Anderson. This work speaks to the synergistic relationship between wildfires and glacier retreat. Images combine photographic works of Jessica Hays (wildfires of North America) and Todd Anderson (glaciers in the Dry Valleys of Antarctica). Ash and soot from wildfires travels through the atmosphere to Antarctica, landing on the surface of glaciers and ice caps. This lowers the albedo, or reflective value of the ice, causing it to absorb more heat from the sun, and thus increase melt rates.