Summer of 2020 was a record-breaking wildfire season for the West Coast of America. Fires burned throughout California, Oregon, Washington, and through Canada. On September 9th, high-altitude smoke caused the sky to turn an apocalyptic shade of dark twilight orange. I had recently left my job, and so was unexpectedly free at noon on a Wednesday to take photographs in Buena Vista park and Corona Heights of the eerie scene.
This was a very personal project for me. A day or two before, my sister's house had burnt down in Washington state in a wildfire, and my father's house was threatened. A sick sense of doom loomed over me as I documented an event that felt symbolic of my own family's destruction. Ultimately, the photos won me some awards, and were featured in an article focused on climate change.
My sister and her family are settled in a new home, and the world spins madly on from this strange event. In a strange way, this moment of hopeless documentation was the springboard into my life as a photographer, and proved to me that I could take a photograph that people cared about. It's still a very important short series to me.
Stories
Personal Project
2020
San Francisco
The interior lights of a house in the Buena Vista neighborhood of San Francisco show in stark contrast to the monochromatic orange outside light caused by the 2020 California wildfire season. San Francisco, California. September 9th, 2020.
Stories
Personal Project
2020
San Francisco
Sutra Tower obscured by a blanket of fog at midday under an oppressive orange sky caused by the 2020 California wildfire season. San Francisco, California. September 9th, 2020.
Stories
Personal Project
2020
San Francisco
The view of downtown San Francisco from Corona Heights as people mill about taking photos of the strange orange sky caused by the 2020 California wildfire season. San Francisco, California. September 9th, 2020.
Stories
Personal Project
2020
San Francisco
People climb rocks at the peak of Corona Heights in an eerie orange light caused by the 2020 California wildfire season. San Francisco, California. September 9th, 2020.
Stories
Personal Project
2020
San Francisco
The San Francisco skyline, including Salesforce tower and the Transamerica building bathed in orange light caused by the 2020 California wildfire season. San Francisco, California. September 9th, 2020.
Caption: What results is a collection of mundane moments from decidedly non-mundane individuals—a mixture of quiet, strange, and chaotic instances that mirror the organization that bore them. What stood out to me was the depth of history contained within the order—from early sex education pamphlets the sisters distributed in the Castro district, to hearing the sisters' perspective on the struggles queer people face in modern times, I got the sense that whatever we were experiencing now, the sisters had experienced it in some form before.
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