The Daily Edit – Ash Adams: The New Yorker

Ash Adams The Art of Leaping Out of Planes to Fight Wildfires Heidi: How did this assignment first come about, and what did you know about smokejumping before you began? Ash: New Yorker photo editor Gabrielle Farina reached out, and I’m so glad she did. I was familiar with smokejumping in advance (from in and outside of Alaska), and I was delighted to work on this. Was there a particular image or idea you wanted to pursue from the outset? I was most interested in documenting days-in-the-life on the base. Instead of following an active fire, that felt like the most authentic way to show what the job looks like and the part people see less. Proficiency jumps show the skill required in jumping, but people know what that—jumping out of a plane—looks like. But I think few imagine jumping out of that plane with a thirty-year-old parachute you yourself inspected and stitched—that takes the skill required for the job and the stakes to a new level. The smokejumpers’ work combines extraordinary…