Los Angeles

Los Angeles Wildfires – January 2025

A new year usually brings new projects, New Year’s resolutions, and good wishes for the months ahead. This one started differently. I have been in Los Angeles covering the wildfires, and it has been quite an experience. It is hard to put into words.

The disaster is immense. Whole areas have been razed, and very few homes have survived the ferocity of the fire. The air is thick and heavy. Even though we are so close to the ocean, it feels like it doesn’t move at all. In some places the ash floats in the air, and it makes it difficult to breathe.

You can feel how fast the fire took everything. Some areas were hit by heat so intense that it is impossible to recognize what they once were. It looks closer to the aftermath of a blast than a fire. In most places the ground is covered by a mixture of ash, broken glass, and small metal pieces like nails and screws.

This is a very unfortunate event that has taken the lives and dreams of many people.

We have crossed paths with firefighters, doctors, paramedics, military personnel, and volunteers. They are all exhausted, working long hours. Their faces show fatigue, but also a quiet determination to keep going.

In 2018 I spent almost a month documenting the Camp Fire in Butte County. You would think that experience prepares you for something like this. It doesn’t. Every disaster has its own scale, its own silence, and its own way of changing what you thought you knew about loss.

I recorded some footage with a 360 camera mounted on top of my main camera, to analyze what cannot be done in situ. Some of what we saw will take time to process. What remains is the responsibility to tell it with care, for the people who lived through it and for those who are now starting again from the ashes.