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Sunlit Smoke, Siberia, Russia, 2001

"Sunlit smoke whispers the firefighter's secret: Life can be beautiful even when the world burns down around you. As fire crackles through a forest's understory, clearing brush and preparing the ground for new life, it's hard for even a sworn adversary not to respect its role in the ecosystem. 'Fires are natural,' one smokejumper says, 'but it's our job to fight them.'"

—From "Russian Smokejumpers," August 2002, National Geographic magazine

Photograph by Mark Thiessen