Thursday, April 22, 2021
GO! magazine — A&E in Northeast Oregon
‘Fire Stories’:
Josephy Center/Contributed Photo
JOHN F. MARSHALL holds a B.S. in
fi shery science from Oregon State
University and an M.S. in wildlife
resources from the University of
Idaho. For the last 25 years, he has
worked with Dr. Paul Hessburg
of the Pacifi c Northwest Research
Station of the U.S. Forest Service to
document changes in the role of fi re
in the modern era .
JOSEPH — “Fire Stories” — a
historic and contemporary explo-
ration of wildfi re in Northwest
landscapes — opens April 23 at
the Josephy Center for Arts and
Culture in Joseph.
There will be a limited open-
ing at 7 p.m. Friday, fi rst-come,
fi rst-served, as the Josephy Center
is currently authorized for only 31
visitors. There will be unlimited ac-
cess via Zoom. Look for the link at
www.josephy.org or call the center
at 541-432-0505 for instructions.
The exhibit showcases photos
Josephy Center/Contibuted Photo
3
NEW PERSPECTIVES from old photographs
taken from fi re lookout towers
with Osborne panoramic cameras
nearly 90 years ago paired with
modern replications from pho-
tographer and naturalist John
F. Marshall. The paired images
provide a unique perspective —
the contrasts showing how fi re
and fi re suppression have changed
the landscapes of the Wallowa and
Blue mountains.
In the 1930s, with a camera
designed by U.S. Forest Service
worker William Bushnell “Bush”
Osborne and built by Leupold-
Volpel & Co. in Portland, foresters
took pictures from fi re lookout
towers across the Northwest.
Each photo covered 120 degrees,
so three photos covered the entire
region surveyed from each tower,
and, matched with the “Osborne
Firefi nder,” allowed lookout guards
to pinpoint the fi res and communi-
cate up the line.
For the past several years, Mar-
shall has trekked the Wallowa and
Blue mountains to fi nd these Os-
borne photo locations — climbing
the towers when still there, or in
some other way fi nding a vantage
point to match the 1930s viewsheds
— and take pictures from the same
spots today.
The relationship between
humans and fi re is tangled with
how we live on the land and use its
resources. American Indians long
learned to live with fi re and made
it useful. European settlement
The Josephy Center’s “Fire Stories” exhibit
features historical photographs taken with
a unique camera called the “Osborne Photo
Recording Transit.” The special cameras
were used by the U.S. Forest Service in the
1930s to capture 120-degree large-format
panoramic images from hundreds of fi re
lookout towers and other sites throughout
Oregon and Washington. The Osborne
panoramic camera had a moving lens in
front of a stationary 6” x 13” negative. The
photographer would wind it up to do the
picture taking. Fewer than 10 of the cameras
were built.
brought a different sensibility and
the tools and organization to con-
trol fi re — but it wasn’t understood
then how fi re is essential to the
function of nature, and attempting
to eliminate fi re has only increased
its destructive power.
How does nature live with fi re,
and how can we? According to the
Josephy Center’s description of the
exhibit, these are questions that
cannot be ignored in this unprec-
edented time. This exhibit will pro-
vide some answers and stimulate
more thought and discussion.
The then-and-now photos illus-
trate the positive roles of historical
wildfi res and document changes in
the role of fi re in the modern era.
Works of art on their own, the “Fire
Stories” photographs show how
art, history and science can work
together to teach us about Pacifi c
Northwest forests.
The exhibit will be up until June
15. Gallery hours at the Josephy
Center, 403 N. Main St., Joseph,
are noon to 5 p.m. on weekdays and
noon to 4 p.m. on Saturdays.
Complementary programs are
planned for May. The Josephy Book
Group will meet via Zoom May 4 to
discuss “Fire in Paradise: An Amer-
ican Tragedy.” All are welcome.
A special virtual “Fire in the
West” discussion May 20 will fea-
Josephy Center/Contributed Image
The top photo, from the U.S. Forest Service in 1936, and the bottom one,
from John F. Marshall in 2018, view the Wallowa Mountains in the Eagle
Cap Wilderness and show the changes wildfi re has made on the landscape.
fi res have become annual catas-
trophes across the West and what
we can do about them. It aired on
Oregon Public Broadcasting in
February.
Additionally, one of a very few
Osborne cameras will be on exhibit
at the Josephy Center, and a book
with many of the photos and John
Marshall’s comments is available
for sale at the center and at The
Bookloft, 107 E. Main St., Enter-
prise (www.bookloftoregon.net).
The Josephy Center presents the
“Fire Stories” exhibit in partner-
ship with Wallowa Resources
(www.wallowaresources.org).
ture Stephen J. Pyne, an emeritus
professor at Arizona State Univer-
sity specializing in the history of
fi re. Pyre is the author of “Fire in
America” and “Between Two Fires,”
considered seminal texts on fi re.
The free Zoom event will run from
2-4 p.m. and is open to all. The
link will be posted on the Josephy
Center’s website.
“The West Is Burning,” a docu-
mentary produced and fi lmed by
Cody Sheehy, a Wallowa County
native, will be presented via
streaming at the center at 7 p.m.
May 27. Sheehy will introduce the
fi lm, which examines why mega-
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