The Great Disaster is a series of photo collages depicting the aftermath of a catastrophic fire in an unnamed American city.  Each combines elements from a dozen or more antique photographs, namely real photo postcards of the early 20th century.

Real photo postcards were introduced by Kodak in 1903, allowing amateur photographers to print images directly onto pre-made postcard backs and share with far-flung friends and relatives.  A century before Instagram, the notion proved irresistible and the format grew to dominate the photo industry.  General stores across the country were stocked with postcards of local landmarks and events, and disasters were a major category.

Drawn to the eerie atmosphere of these early photographic artifacts, I collected over 150 examples depicting fires, train wrecks, earthquakes, and other calamities. After digitizing the materials, I combined their most evocative subjects into the compositions you see here, synthesizing dozens of disparate, often unidentified events into a single narrative sequence presented in the style of its source material. Descriptive text is drawn from original hand-lettering found on the cards, incorporating headlines from the days after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 and the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake.

Conceived as wildfires ravaged California and Australia and created from lockdown in New York City at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, the series reflects on the human fascination with disasters at a time when these events take on unprecedented scale and regularity.  While indulging in the curious appeal of catastrophe, the pictures illustrate the cyclic nature of any trauma, both the personal and collective, with their familiar rhythm of chaos, reflection, and renewal.