Wildfire photography featured in Upcountry History Museum’s next exhibit

Artists may find inspiration in unexpected places. For photographer Kari Greer of Idaho, a summer job in college as a firefighter with the U.S. Forest Service opened the door to a more than 25-year career as a wildfire photographer.

Her work will be on display from July to October at Greenville’s Upcountry History Museum.

Being introduced to fighting wildfires

Greer was first exposed to fighting wildfires when she took a summer job in 1994 at Gifford Pinchot National Forest in Washington while she was attending California State University, where she majored in film production and photography.

Following her first summer, Greer said she developed a passion for the job and returned three additional summers where she worked on a Type 2 IA hand crew, a 20-person team where they would take fire assignments, dig handlines, conduct burn operations, mop up, fight fires and do rehabilitation following fires.

Transitioning from firefighter to wildfire photographer

Once college was behind her, Greer said she took her two passions and combined them by working as a firefighter through 1997 and then obtaining a contract with the U.S. Forest Service in 1998 to photograph fires.

“Photography was basically my first love and then during college, I started fighting fire and the two just mingled,” Greer said. “It was like such a smooth transition. It was such a wonderful niche to fall into.”

“First Creek Fire” Lake Chelan, Washington, August 2015. Photo by Kari Greer

Using firefighter training to stay safe on the job

While Greer is not actively employed as a firefighter, she has maintained her qualifications by completing a fitness course and fire-line certification training each year.

Every time she goes into the field, she said she credits her training and experience for allowing her to stay safe while doing her job and communicating with firefighting teams on the scene.

“I believe you really need to have fire experience and understand the incident-command system in order to operate efficiently out there,” said Greer. “(You need) to know how to be in the right place at the right time and how to communicate with other fire resources so that you are part of the group that’s out there. (You should) try to be as seamless as possible and not get in the way.”

Taking a career and turning it into an exhibit

Drawing from Greer’s 25-year career, the Moscow Contemporary Art Gallery in Moscow, Idaho, compiled a 64-photo exhibit, “Facing the Inferno: The Wildfire Photography of Kari Greer,” which will feature images from 85 fires across nine states.

The exhibit will run from July 1 to Oct. 22 at the Upcountry History Museum in Greenville. It will be accompanied by a companion exhibition with artifacts and archival materials focused on wildfires and wildland firefighting in the Carolinas.

For more information, visit upcountryhistory.org.