“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 as Crossover is a perception and time-altering experience.

As ever increasingly stated, 21^st Century life is fast, humans mindlessly consuming articles, text, imagery at an ever-increasing pace.  There is no time to pause.

Frozen Fire – Crossover is part of Latreilles ongoing photographic exploration into the search for pause, for liminal moments within our environment and lives.  Made between November 2021 and March 2023 this nocturnal imagery is photographed within the remains of two remote British Columbian fires from the devastating 2021 Fire Season.

‘This project came about during a time when my family and I were in the process of accepting a deep and tragic loss – the loss of a beautiful mind.  It became a quest for space to pause’ – Andrew Latreille

He purposely removes the superheated subject matter from its seasonal context to one of subzero temperatures. The nocturnal selection of soft moonlight gives a daylit appearance until the hint of faint stars is noticed.  As occurs in Crossover, the combination of these qualities causes a perceptual shift in the viewer.

Historically, visual artists have recorded fire destruction immediately, depicting place, circumstance and the devastating loss of property and life.  These documentary records are made to shock.

Crossover is not simply a series of an incinerated forest.  Like Tillmans’s work, the photographs reflect Latreilles experience and perception during these winter nights.  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.

‘The process of making Crossover gave me time to pause and rediscover what really matters.  It meant that the next time I saw my mother, despite her lack of memory of me, I could see the beauty within her new mind.

As you spend time with these images, you’ll be transported to the unknown, and there you’ll discover that liminal place for yourself.’ – Andrew Latreille

Spending time with Crossover will give you that pause as it did Latreille.

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