Title: Blackened Field, Open Sky
Series: Still Ground
Location: Strong City, Kansas— Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve
Year: 2021
Medium: Archival Pigment Photograph
Artist: Jamaica Jones
Charred prairie grasses fill the foreground while a limestone schoolhouse rises beneath a layered sky. The image holds a quiet tension between intervention and recovery—blackened ground meeting open air.
Photographed following a controlled burn at the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, the scene reflects a long-standing land management practice used to restore native grasses and sustain prairie health.
Fire becomes part of stewardship rather than destruction. Ash and renewal share the same ground, while the schoolhouse remains—structure and landscape participating in the same cycle of care.
Still Ground is rooted in land, continuity, and stewardship. The series observes prairie, stone, water, and built forms shaped by natural cycles and long-term care. Rather than dramatic moments, the work focuses on presence—what remains, what recovers, and how land holds memory over time.
Photography © Jamaica Jones