After the Burn

• Prize
  Bronze in Fine Art/Minimalism
• Photographer
  David Welch, United States
• Date of Photograph
  Various date through 2025
• Studio
  David Welch Photographic Arts
• Website
  https://davidwelchphotographicarts.org/
• Instagram
  @davidwelchartphoto

Over the past decade, wildfire has reshaped the forests of Northern California. After the Dixie Fire, I returned to photograph what remained. I isolate charred trunks against a white field, treating them as portrait subjects rather than landscape elements. Each image carries a number drawn between one and one million, suggesting scale and anonymity—one remnant among countless others. Inspired by Avedon’s stark portraiture, I render them in black and white so structure and gesture become primary. The series is a meditation on endurance and the quiet dignity of what survives.

David Welch is a fine art photographer based in Sonoma County, California. After a career in Silicon Valley’s high-tech industry, he shifted to photography full-time, building on formal training received in college and continuing education through professional workshops and a mentorship with Bob Killen (National Park Photography Expeditions) and W. Scott Olsen (Concordia College).
His work explores the intersection of history, memory, and place, with recent projects focusing on sites such as Mare Island Naval Shipyard (Ghosts in the Glass) and Scenic, South Dakota (Echoes of Scenic).

Awards Group Exhibitions:

2025 Decagon Gallery, Places and Spaces
2025 Black Box Gallery, Focus: Trees and Water
2025 Black Box Gallery, Vision: Shadow and Light

2024 Art Scene West, Photographic Fine Art
2024 Black Box Gallery, Street+Night+Architecture

Publications:
June 2025 L'Oeil de la Photographie