WEBVTT 00:02.033 --> 00:04.833 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% AMNA NAWAZ: There's no lack of images and powerful video when it comes to the disasters 00:04.833 --> 00:07.466 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% like wildfires or melting glaciers. 00:07.466 --> 00:11.833 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% But a pair of artists are using those images in new ways, part of their mission to warn 00:11.833 --> 00:16.233 align:left position:20% line:77% size:70% people about what's happening too frequently to familiar landscapes. 00:16.233 --> 00:21.200 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% Miles O'Brien has this different look at the power of fire and ice for our segment on the 00:21.200 --> 00:23.266 align:left position:30% line:89% size:60% Leading Edge. 00:23.266 --> 00:27.466 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% MILES O'BRIEN: In a small shack in the Palm Springs Desert and a sunlit studio on a Brooklyn 00:29.700 --> 00:34.700 align:left position:20% line:77% size:70% corner, two artists are aiming their talent at an existential crisis. 00:36.333 --> 00:39.266 align:left position:20% line:77% size:70% JEFF FROST, Artist: Sometimes, people accuse me of being an alarmist. 00:39.266 --> 00:41.100 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% And I say, that's exactly right. 00:41.100 --> 00:43.100 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% It is time to sound the alarm. 00:43.100 --> 00:47.700 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% Any sensible adult who's responsible in any way would be sounding the alarm right now. 00:47.700 --> 00:52.166 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% MILES O'BRIEN: For Jeff Frost, the subject is wildfire. 00:52.166 --> 00:56.566 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% The medium is time-lapse video art. 00:56.566 --> 01:01.533 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% His film is "California on Fire," an intense, horrifying creation about destruction. 01:04.000 --> 01:08.366 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80% JEFF FROST: I had looked at this wildfire situation and I thought, well, here is a present-day 01:10.300 --> 01:12.400 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% effect of climate change. 01:12.400 --> 01:17.400 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% People tend to not react to things unless they're actually happening to them right then. 01:18.833 --> 01:20.700 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% And I was thinking, well, this is happening right now. 01:20.700 --> 01:24.233 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% It's definitely not a film that pulls any punches whatsoever. 01:24.233 --> 01:26.666 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% In fact, it's full-on aggressive. 01:26.666 --> 01:31.033 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% MILES O'BRIEN: For Zaria Forman, the mission is the same. 01:31.033 --> 01:36.033 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% ZARIA FORMAN, Artist: Art has this very special ability to tap into people's emotions, and 01:38.100 --> 01:42.100 align:left position:20% line:71% size:70% people take action and make decisions based on their emotions more than anything else. 01:44.166 --> 01:47.366 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% MILES O'BRIEN: Her medium is pastels, and her subject is ice, vanishing ice, also a 01:51.066 --> 01:56.033 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% story of destruction, on a different time scale, and from a different perspective. 01:57.966 --> 02:00.900 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% ZARIA FORMAN: I choose specifically to show the beauty of these places at the forefront 02:00.900 --> 02:05.666 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80% of climate change, as opposed to the devastation that's happening, because I want people to 02:05.666 --> 02:09.633 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% be inspired, to be moved to want to protect and preserve them. 02:09.633 --> 02:14.633 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80% MILES O'BRIEN: Jeff Frost began his artistic journey here, inside abandoned houses in California's 02:16.766 --> 02:19.166 align:left position:30% line:89% size:60% Salton Sea. 02:19.166 --> 02:24.166 align:left position:20% line:71% size:70% As he embellished them with paint, he captured time-lapse images, art that is as much about 02:25.033 --> 02:27.266 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% the process as the object. 02:27.266 --> 02:32.266 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% JEFF FROST: On the way to one, I accidentally ran into my first wildfire out -- right out 02:33.000 --> 02:35.166 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70% here by the wind farms. 02:35.166 --> 02:39.200 align:left position:20% line:71% size:70% My artist brain just kind of exploded, and I stopped immediately and time-lapsed it all 02:39.666 --> 02:41.700 align:left position:40% line:89% size:50% night. 02:41.700 --> 02:44.266 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% I just was looking at it, thinking, I have never seen anything like this. 02:44.266 --> 02:46.133 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% And it was wildly exciting. 02:46.133 --> 02:48.133 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70% I want to do more. 02:48.133 --> 02:52.366 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% MILES O'BRIEN: Zaria Forman's love of distant, fragile places is inherited. 02:54.466 --> 02:59.133 align:left position:20% line:71% size:70% Her mother, Rena Bass Forman, was a fine art landscape photographer, obsessed with exploring 03:00.866 --> 03:04.966 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% and photographing the most remote places on the planet. 03:04.966 --> 03:09.966 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% In 2007, they traveled together to Greenland. 03:11.500 --> 03:14.933 align:left position:20% line:77% size:70% For Zaria, the ice offered inspiration, and yet also intimidation. 03:14.933 --> 03:19.933 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% ZARIA FORMAN: I was terrified to draw ice, and I omitted it from all of my drawings. 03:22.600 --> 03:24.233 align:left position:30% line:89% size:60% It's hard. 03:24.233 --> 03:28.500 align:left position:20% line:77% size:70% It doesn't lend itself to very crisp, hard lines, specific details. 03:28.500 --> 03:30.866 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% And especially white is one of the hardest colors to work with. 03:30.866 --> 03:33.000 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% It doesn't blend well with other colors. 03:33.000 --> 03:36.100 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% So, I just didn't think I was going to be capable of it, to be totally honest. 03:36.100 --> 03:41.100 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80% MILES O'BRIEN: But it was impossible to ignore this artistic sin of omission, so she eventually 03:42.600 --> 03:44.666 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70% embraced the challenge. 03:44.666 --> 03:49.366 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% ZARIA FORMAN: And it was this big, kind of scary step, but I made my first drawing when 03:50.466 --> 03:51.700 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% I got home, and it didn't turn out so bad. 03:51.700 --> 03:53.533 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% And I have been doing it ever since. 03:53.533 --> 03:58.500 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% MILES O'BRIEN: Jeff Frost became equally obsessed with wildfires. 03:59.633 --> 04:01.766 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% He started responding to the big ones. 04:01.766 --> 04:05.900 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% JEFF FROST: The very first time I went to a fire, it was just massive level of anxiety 04:06.633 --> 04:08.733 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70% and heightened alert. 04:08.733 --> 04:12.466 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% But, once I got used to it, it became more contemplative, and it became more strategized. 04:14.533 --> 04:18.766 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% I would take this photo that was incredibly aesthetically beautiful, but then I would 04:18.766 --> 04:22.200 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% feel guilty because I was happy about making a good picture. 04:22.200 --> 04:24.700 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% And I think a lot of photojournalists probably go through this. 04:24.700 --> 04:28.633 align:left position:20% line:77% size:70% And, eventually, I compartmentalized and strategized. 04:28.633 --> 04:32.966 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% And so, in a lot of ways, the strategy is to pull people in with that aesthetic beauty, 04:32.966 --> 04:36.966 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% but then they're seeing something that's got a lot more depth than just the surface. 04:36.966 --> 04:41.966 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% MILES O'BRIEN: His is constantly playing with the clock, speeding it up, slowing it down, 04:43.900 --> 04:45.900 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70% lingering on a frame. 04:45.900 --> 04:50.266 align:left position:20% line:71% size:70% JEFF FROST: If you change chronologies away from real time, what our experience of time 04:52.300 --> 04:55.233 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% is as humans, it can give you the overview effect, which is the same kind of thing that 04:55.233 --> 04:59.566 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% you get if you were to look at space photos from the International Space Station. 04:59.566 --> 05:03.066 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% It sort of expands your mind into this wider view. 05:03.066 --> 05:07.266 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% We really need that, because I don't think, in the evolution of our species, anything 05:07.266 --> 05:10.166 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% has ever developed to give us a global instinct. 05:10.166 --> 05:14.700 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% MILES O'BRIEN: Zaria Forman has her own tale of overview. 05:14.700 --> 05:19.700 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% ZARIA FORMAN: So, one day, I opened this e-mail that was in my inbox that read, "Dear Zaria, 05:21.333 --> 05:24.800 align:left position:20% line:77% size:70% we would love for you to come fly with us over Antarctica, love NASA." 05:24.800 --> 05:26.066 align:left position:30% line:89% size:60% (LAUGHTER) 05:26.066 --> 05:29.133 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% ZARIA FORMAN: And I was like, what? 05:29.133 --> 05:34.133 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% MILES O'BRIEN: It was the crew of NASA's IceBridge, which flies low-altitude sensing missions 05:35.233 --> 05:38.100 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70% over both polar regions. 05:38.100 --> 05:43.100 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% She's flown with them several times, a new perspective on a familiar subject. 05:45.000 --> 05:47.100 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% ZARIA FORMAN: I'm used to seeing it at the very end stage, either the face of a glacier 05:47.100 --> 05:51.433 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% where the icebergs are calving off, or the icebergs that have already broken off and 05:51.433 --> 05:54.600 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% are on their deathbed, essentially, until they melt completely in the ocean. 05:54.600 --> 05:58.633 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% So, it was really interesting to get to get to fly over the ice cap, over the ice sheet, 05:58.633 --> 06:03.000 align:left position:20% line:71% size:70% and really see where all of that ice came from, and understand how it travels and how 06:03.000 --> 06:04.466 align:left position:30% line:89% size:60% it moves. 06:04.466 --> 06:06.466 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% MILES O'BRIEN: It is the focus of her work right now. 06:06.466 --> 06:10.466 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% ZARIA FORMAN: I want to be true to the landscape that existed at that point in time. 06:10.466 --> 06:15.133 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% I want the viewer to have as much of a recreation of an experience that I had. 06:15.133 --> 06:17.033 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70% I want it to be real. 06:17.033 --> 06:21.633 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% MILES O'BRIEN: The landscape depicted in "California on Fire" is grim. 06:23.600 --> 06:27.233 align:left position:20% line:71% size:70% It ripples with tension, made palpable with a throbbing soundtrack composed and performed 06:28.900 --> 06:31.000 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70% by Jeff Frost himself. 06:31.000 --> 06:36.000 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% JEFF FROST: The most feedback from the firefighters themselves I have got is, this really makes 06:37.433 --> 06:39.533 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% you feel like you're in the middle of a fire. 06:39.533 --> 06:44.133 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% And you see the things that normally civilians wouldn't see. 06:44.133 --> 06:47.733 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% This probably gets as close as you're going to get. 06:47.733 --> 06:52.733 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% I have had a number of people thank me for essentially making something beautiful and 06:54.633 --> 06:58.633 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% something productive and artistic out of this horror that they experienced. 06:58.633 --> 07:02.400 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% There are moments in this where horror is beauty. 07:02.400 --> 07:07.400 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% MILES O'BRIEN: For Zaria Forman, the horror lies in the beauty that is vanishing, melting, 07:09.800 --> 07:12.400 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% even as she freezes it on paper. 07:12.400 --> 07:16.066 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% ZARIA FORMAN: I think it's important to have like come at it at all different angles, you 07:16.066 --> 07:17.066 align:left position:40% line:89% size:50% know? 07:17.066 --> 07:18.066 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70% Like, we need news. 07:18.066 --> 07:19.266 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70% We need the stories. 07:19.266 --> 07:21.366 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% We need the data from the scientists. 07:21.366 --> 07:25.300 align:left position:20% line:71% size:70% But then I think we also need beautiful images, whatever we can possibly do to change policy. 07:26.866 --> 07:28.933 align:left position:20% line:77% size:70% I mean, we're moving in the right direction, just not fast enough. 07:28.933 --> 07:33.600 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% JEFF FROST: I can't really go into it saying like, I'm going to change the world. 07:33.600 --> 07:35.933 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% I'm saying like, look, it would be great if this was a catalyst. 07:35.933 --> 07:38.800 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% I think everybody has to do their thing. 07:38.800 --> 07:43.066 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% I just feel like more like I'm doing my part, you do your part too, and you and you and 07:43.066 --> 07:45.066 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70% you and everybody else. 07:45.066 --> 07:47.033 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% And they're all important. 07:47.033 --> 07:51.233 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% MILES O'BRIEN: Two artists making fine art of fire and ice, beautiful, terrifying work, 07:55.566 --> 08:00.600 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% created to evoke and provoke. 08:02.566 --> 08:06.633 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Miles O'Brien in Palm Springs and Brooklyn.