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Description
In the foothills of the Stansbury Mountains in Skull Valley, Utah is a juniper forest that burned in the early summer shortly before Lee and I went there to do these pictures. The hillsides were covered in several inches of undisturbed ash that along with the charred remains of the trees created an otherworldy setting for our work.

It was dirty and hot so I took my cue from Lee and got naked and stayed naked for the duration of the shoot. I thought I would be distracted by my own nakedness but realized very shortly into it that I had become so focused on what I was doing that I completely forgot about it. I think for what we were doing that day that it was good for me to become more vulnerable and be more directly in contact with the earth.

There is powerful energy in the aftermath of a fire like that - the earth has been changed but not killed. There is life in roots that lie beneath the soil under the ashes and sap still running through the branches of many of the trees. A ribbon of green appears along a tiny stream of water still flowing from the mountains. I expected it to feel creepy and haunting, but it didn't. It was quiet and peaceful and the ash was soft beneath our bare feet.

Lee laid down in the ashes and went into a state of near suspended animation while I worked to bury him. He didn't move a muscle, didn't twitch a bit, never said a word. He wasn't just in character; he became that Pompeiian body in the ashes.

The earth has a lot of healing energy in her. Sometimes I feel it more than others, which is likely a result of distractions from the chaos and competing energies of city life. But out there in that burned juniper forest with Lee in Skull Valley that day the earth's presence was strong and beautiful. The ashes in my hands reminded me of the ashes of a lover I once scattered in some other mountains in another desert further south. One way or another we really do return; ashes to ashes and to our mother earth.

Lee *justmeina photographed by Tom Clark in Skull Valley, Utah

Description
In the foothills of the Stansbury Mountains in Skull Valley, Utah is a juniper forest that burned in the early summer shortly before Lee and I went there to do these pictures. The hillsides were covered in several inches of undisturbed ash that along with the charred remains of the trees created an otherworldy setting for our work.

It was dirty and hot so I took my cue from Lee and got naked and stayed naked for the duration of the shoot. I thought I would be distracted by my own nakedness but realized very shortly into it that I had become so focused on what I was doing that I completely forgot about it. I think for what we were doing that day that it was good for me to become more vulnerable and be more directly in contact with the earth.

There is powerful energy in the aftermath of a fire like that - the earth has been changed but not killed. There is life in roots that lie beneath the soil under the ashes and sap still running through the branches of many of the trees. A ribbon of green appears along a tiny stream of water still flowing from the mountains. I expected it to feel creepy and haunting, but it didn't. It was quiet and peaceful and the ash was soft beneath our bare feet.

Lee laid down in the ashes and went into a state of near suspended animation while I worked to bury him. He didn't move a muscle, didn't twitch a bit, never said a word. He wasn't just in character; he became that Pompeiian body in the ashes.

The earth has a lot of healing energy in her. Sometimes I feel it more than others, which is likely a result of distractions from the chaos and competing energies of city life. But out there in that burned juniper forest with Lee in Skull Valley that day the earth's presence was strong and beautiful. The ashes in my hands reminded me of the ashes of a lover I once scattered in some other mountains in another desert further south. One way or another we really do return; ashes to ashes and to our mother earth.

Lee *justmeina photographed by Tom Clark in Skull Valley, Utah