“Day turns to night, and night becomes day, smoke obscures the beating sun’s rays, the fire’s intensity overpowers the moon’s cool soft light.”

This point, known amongst fire professionals as Crossover is a perception and time-altering experience.

Through the juxtaposition of destruction and beauty, heat and cold, in Frozen Fire – Crossover, Latreille explores the conflicting emotions of loss and love that surround our anxiety of an unknown future.

The series is part of Latreille’s ongoing exploration into revealing liminal moments within our environment and lives.  This nocturnal collection of images was made between November 2021 and March 2023.  His chosen muse the remains of two remote British Columbian fires from the devastating 2021 Fire Season.

The forests of the Pacific Northwest are familiar to us thanks to their lush beauty, scale and biodiversity.  We are connected culturally, socially and economically to them.  Our physical experience walking these forests is one of dimly lit enclosure, a warm hug as the dense web of moss-covered trees, salal and berries contains your vision. Forests are soft underfoot, spongy and quiet, with centuries of biomass covered in damp lichen.

Yet our perception of what forest might be is changing with Fire.

As occurs in Crossover Latreille’s images create an opportunity for a perceptual shift.  He purposely removes the superheated subject matter from its seasonal context to one of subzero temperatures. The selection of soft moonlight gives a daylit appearance until the hint of faint stars is noticeable.

The imagery created during these nocturnal hikes is reminiscent of Tillmans’s – reflecting how Latreille perceived that moment.  Whether the image is an expansive panoramic overview or a close detail an overriding beauty is present.  And like fire, viewing this series becomes a time-altering experience, a liminal moment where we find space to contemplate the future.

It will transport you from your (likely) urban location to this expansive world of a softly lit carbon fence of the transparent forest, its horizontal shadows flowing across the sparkling snow and seemingly infinite topography.

And while the future of our world is unknown, the sublime atmosphere evokes within you hope for that unknown future.