On Fire

"On Fire" is a startling, mesmerizing series of photographs of prairie fires that transports us from moments of almost apocalyptic splendour to the stillness of near abstraction.

For over a decade, Kansas-based photographer, Larry Schwarm has been making extraordinary colour photographs of the dramatic prairie fires that sweep across the vast grasslands of his native state each spring.

Based on this stunning and extensive body of work, Schwarm was chosen from over 500 submission as the inaugural winner of the CDS/Honickman Foundation First Book Prize in Photography.

With publication of "On Fire", Duke University Press, in association with the Center for Documentary Studies and The Honickman Foundation, launches this major biennial book prize for American photographers.

Fire is an essential element of the ecosystem. Every spring, the expanses of tallgrass prairie in the Flint Hills of east-central Kansas undergo controlled burning.

For photographer Larry Schwarm, documenting these fires has become a passion.

He captures the essence of the fires and their distinct personalities - ranging from calm and lyrical to angry and raging.His photos allow us to see the redemptive power of fire and to remove ourselves from its tragic elements.

Through Schwarm's lens, the horizon takes on new meaning, as we view the sublime, mystical, and sensual character of the burning landscape.

Schwarm connects the enormous power and devastation of fire to what can only be identified as another kind of creation - the creation of beauty. "Schwarm's photographs of fire on the prairie," writes Robert Adams, the prize's inaugural judge, "are so compelling that I cannot imagine any later photographer trying to do better." This is a Lyndhurst Book, published in association with the Center for Documentary Studies.