See the full set: my complete Hawk Fire take on Getty Images.
Update, August 26: one of these photographs, the statue of two figures embracing in the ashes, is the lead image on the front page of today’s Los Angeles Times, anchoring their story on Reno’s wildland-urban growth.
Nine hours of driving for four hours of shooting. That is the math of covering the Hawk Fire in Reno on assignment for AFP this weekend, and it was worth every mile. The fire has burned through more than 15,000 acres northwest of the city, destroyed 32 homes so far, and pushed 42,000 people out at the height of the evacuations. Investigators say it was human caused.
I got access into one of the neighborhoods where homes burned, and I was there as residents came back to see what was left. That return is the hardest part of any fire to photograph and the most important. Statistics do not move people. A person standing in front of the place they lived does.
Then, a few doors down, the strangest scene of the day. A house that survived, surrounded on every side by burned properties, and in the backyard three guys swimming in their pool. One of them was doing backflips into the water with torched cars and black hillsides in the frame behind him. Fires hand you heartbreak and absurdity in the same afternoon, and the job is to photograph both honestly.
The details are what stay with you. A statue of two people embracing, still standing in the ash of a home. A collection of vehicles painted like the characters from the movie Cars, scorched where they sat. A house still smoldering a full day after the front moved through.
I photograph corporate and editorial assignments, and wildfires are one of the subjects I cover regularly. My archive from more than 100 fires across the West is in my wildfire gallery, and comparable outtakes from my fire coverage are available to license directly for editorial and educational use. If you are covering the Nevada fires and need context imagery, reach out.