“I focus on the vulnerability that all living things share.” 

—David Uzochukwu

Nominated for the 2021 Prix Pictet, the world’s leading award for photography and sustainability, and gracing the cover of the accompanying publication, Wildfire is the work that launched David Uzochukwu’s (Austrian Nigerian, b.1998) ongoing series In the Wake in which he presents Black bodies within scenes of natural destruction ‘to learn from histories of exploitation and imagine new ways of being.’ Here, the subject appears strong and composed against a burnt landscape as she looks directly at the camera, holding our gaze. ‘The dark plume of smoke rising from the woman’s head turns her into a force of nature,’ the artist explains, ‘but also calls attention to a precarious state of being.’ This powerful work reminds us of the duality of fire as an element that destroys and renews. As seen in the present work, Uzochukwu’s image-making process involves digitally layering multiple images, allowing the artist to visually dissolve boundaries between humans and the environment.  

Wildlife has been exhibited globally and other prints of the image are held in the Collection Pictet, Geneva, and at the Musée de la Photographie de Saint-Louis, Senegal. 

This offering marks the artist’s debut at auction.

Video interview for Prix Pictet: Fire award ceremony at the V&A, London, 2022. Courtesy of the artist.