2020 Micro-Grant Winner: Martin Greenwood
About Martin:
Martin Greenwood has been a volunteer firefighter in Australia since he was 17. Monday-Friday and usually all weekend he works behind a desk running the office of a politician and being a husband and a dad. When he can he is a Deputy Captain in the Australian Capital Territory Rural Fire Service – Rivers Brigade documenting his experiences with bushfires and prescribed burns on whatever camera is closest to hand.
Grant Category: Videography
International Winner: Australia
Australian Bushfire Experience
Project Vision:
The 2019-20 fire season was the worst in Australia’s recorded history – everything burnt, everyone was affected. As the season came to a close COVID-19 struck and the ‘black summer’ season has been consigned to be a distant memory. For many the season repeated the past. The Millennium Drought led into the 2003 firestorm that hit Canberra and led to the loss of hundreds of homes and 4 lives – many of the firefighters who went through 2003 went through a similar experience in 2020 and this project will aim to capture and tell their stories.
Previous Work:
Favorite thing about firefighting:
It is a bit of everything. I’ve worked on land and on private property that you would never experience in any other way. The most intense experiences and the most boring experiences.