Crissy Robbins holds her son Kenneth Koy-o-woh during a prescribed cultural burn in Weitchpec, California. This twice-annual burn on Yurok land is part of a Cultural Fire Management Council training in which indigenous fire practitioners share traditional and modern knowledge with firefighters from around the world. In a recent survey, the Yurok community identified bringing fire back to the land as their top priority.For millennia, indigenous people in California and worldwide burned their land to promote food security, renew cultural and medicinal resources, create animal habitat and control larger fire risk—until colonizers made these methods illegal. Now increasingly devastating wildfires have government agencies reconsidering the use of prescribed burning as a preventative measure, and looking to traditional knowledge to guide some of their policies. Meanwhile, the Yurok and other tribes are working to revive their fire culture and reclaim their right to burn on sovereign land.
Guardian prescribed fire

Crissy Robbins holds her son Kenneth Koy-o-woh during a prescribed cultural burn in Weitchpec, California. This twice-annual burn on Yurok land is part of a Cultural Fire Management Council training in which indigenous fire practitioners share traditional and modern knowledge with firefighters from around the world. In a recent survey, the Yurok community identified bringing fire back to the land as their top priority. 

For millennia, indigenous people in California and worldwide burned their land to promote food security, renew cultural and medicinal resources, create animal habitat and control larger fire risk—until colonizers made these methods illegal. Now increasingly devastating wildfires have government agencies reconsidering the use of prescribed burning as a preventative measure, and looking to traditional knowledge to guide some of their policies. Meanwhile, the Yurok and other tribes are working to revive their fire culture and reclaim their right to burn on sovereign land. 

Alexandra Hootnick

About

 

 

Alexandra Hootnick (b.1986) is an American photographer based in northern California. She is a lecturer at Humboldt State University and is available for freelance assignments. 

 

CONTACT 

+1 315 436 1452 

alexandrahootnick@gmail.com 

 

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS 

The New York Times, Rolling Stone, The Guardian, The Sunday Times Magazine (UK), Bloomberg Businessweek Magazine, Buzzfeed News, Indian Country Today, Marie Claire, Kaiser Health News, National Geographic PROOF, National Geographic Traveler Magazine, The Hechinger Report, The Nation Magazine, The Players Tribune 

 

CV 

 

EDUCATION 

2015: Diploma of Advanced Visual Storytelling, Danish School of Media & Journalism 

2014-present: M.A. in Photography, Syracuse University 

2011-2013: M.S. in Digital Media & Investigative Journalism, Columbia University  

2005-2008: B.A. in Psychology, University of Virginia 

 

DISTINCTIONS 

PDN's 30, 2019 

The Guardian US's Favorite Photographs, 2019 

New York Times Portfolio Review, selected, 2017 

Ian Parry Scholarship, finalist, 2016 

British Journal of Photography Breakthrough award, runner-up, 2016 

Duke CDS Documentary Essay prize in photography, semi-finalist, 2016  

PDN Photo Annual, winner, 2016 

American Photography 32, selected for publication, 2016 

International Photography Awards, student/editorial series, 2015 

PDN Photo Annual, Marty Forscher Fellowship student award, winner, 2015 

NPPA Women in Photojournalism Conference, juried exhibit, runner-up, 2015 

George Plavocos Award, winner, 2015 

New York Times Portfolio Review, selected, 2015 

Eddie Adams Workshop XXVI, participant, 2013 

 

EXHIBITIONS, SCREENINGS 

PDN 30 Group Exhibition, Photoville, Brooklyn, NY 2019 

Humboldt State University Faculty Show, Reese Bullen Gallery, Arcata, CA 2019 

Women Photograph Group Exhibition, Gallery O, Washington, DC 2019 

Women Photograph Group Exhibition, Photoville, Brooklyn, NY, 2017 

Ian Parry Group Exhibition, MOTHER gallery, London, UK, 2016 

C.O.R.E. Group Exhibition, Photoville, Brooklyn, NY, 2015 

A New Perspective-Juried Exhibit, NPPA Women in Photojournalism Conference, Denver, CO, 2015 

Rising Waters: Photographs from Sandy, Group Exhibition, Museum of the City of New York, New York, NY, 2013-2014 

New York Stories: An Evening of Documentary Shorts, Group Screening, The Bronx Documentary Center, Bronx, NY, 2013 

 

BOOKS 

American Photography 32, 2016 

Family.Life, Syracuse University & Alexia Foundation project, 2015 

 

PERMANENT COLLECTION 

Rising Waters: Photographs from Sandy, Museum of the City of New York, New York, NY