ByLeslie Katz,
Senior Contributor.
At first glance, the object appears to be nothing more than a piece of burned wood set in a black frame against a black background. Move closer, however, and the subtle outline of a face emerges.
Fine-art photographer Ari Salomon used a computer-controlled precision cutting machine to engrave the face into a scrap of cedar, which he then converted to solid charcoal by placing the wood in a metal box and heating the container in a controlled fire in his backyard fire pit.
The face staring out from the blackened block is part of “Burn Line,” Salomon’s ongoing series that turns photos of objects lost or damaged in Southern California wildfires — shoes, ritual objects and in this case, a clay bust — into charcoal art that represents loss, resilience and transformation. He calls this original process “pyrotype.”
