On the morning of April 14, 2018, the civil rights attorney and environmental advocate David Buckel died by self-immolation in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, leaving behind a statement urging humanity to end its reliance on fossil fuels and become better stewards of the planet. Joel Sternfeld was visiting the park with his son on the day of the event and returned the following day with his camera. Over the course of the succeeding seasons, Sternfeld recorded the specific ground where Buckel died, tracking the gradual ecological regeneration of the site as a response to loss and an emblem of hope for ecological renewal.

Published as a 156-page hardcover by Steidl in 2019, Our Loss forms part of Sternfeld’s sustained visual investigation into global climate disruption and ecological responsibility, continuing an inquiry developed in earlier projects such as Oxbow Archive and When It Changed. Rather than depicting the act of protest directly, Sternfeld adopts a patient, observational approach centered on the natural cycles of the park. His sustained attention to earth, vegetation, and seasonal change foregrounds the planetary systems—sunlight, gravity, biological renewal—that persist alongside human crisis.

For collectors of contemporary American photography and photobooks addressing environmental issues, Our Loss represents an essential and somber entry in Sternfeld’s late oeuvre. It frames an act of extreme social and ecological protest through the quiet transformation of a public landscape, balancing eulogy with an examination of the living earth.