UC Davis associate professor of art Young Suh spent four years working on his photo-based series, “Wildfires.”

The series will be shown Sept. 14 through Nov. 17 at the San Francisco Arts Commission’s Main Gallery located at 401 Van Ness, Suite 126. Opening reception: Friday, Sept. 14, 6-8 p.m.

Far from documentary shots, Suh’s lush and languid images take the viewer from the comfortable position of being just out of the fire’s path, to standing within feet of the source. The artist exploits these positions of perspective to play on natural human feelings of both compulsion to and fear of nature. This “anxious desire” is the primary focus of his photographs.