AP photojournalists share their experiences documenting the devastating wildfires in Los Angeles, revealing powerful images and the stories behind them.
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00:00I chose that picture because it shows what matters in tragedies like this, and that's
00:26the lives impacted.
00:28When you see and hear about thousands of buildings destroyed, and just the mass destruction,
00:37having a picture like this can kind of remind you that each of those buildings, each of
00:41those homes were filled with the lives and the collective memories for the people who
00:45lived there.
00:47I chose this picture because of the trees.
00:51I had been walking through a devastated part of Altadena.
00:55There were no people anywhere, just destruction and charred trees.
01:00The yellow caution tape was tied around the tree that was cordoning off townhomes that
01:05had been destroyed.
01:08When I got sent up to Altadena on Thursday morning, there were firefighters in there
01:15like putting out burning embers, and the place was pretty much destroyed.
01:21And the first thing I saw was the charred bunny sculpture on the left, and as I was
01:27shooting that, a very weary-looking firefighter walked toward the camera and gave the picture
01:33some scale.
01:34I knew it was a powerful image, and I really hope the Bunny Museum comes back in all its
01:41glory.
01:42I chose this picture because it shows the scale of devastation caused by the Palisades
01:48fire.
01:49The mobile home community, once full of life, is now reduced to ashes.
01:53The small figure of a person walking through the destruction adds a human element to emphasize
01:59the loss.
02:01The Palisades fire was one of the most destructive fires that I've ever seen, and this photo
02:06of palm trees burning was one that stood out.
02:09One of the things that we try and do as a photojournalist is to contextualize where
02:12we are and localize the story.
02:14And for me, the palm trees, really a symbol of Los Angeles burning, was indicative of
02:19the times that we are in.
02:21The van that you see behind me is called Azul by its owner, and it was featured in a picture
02:27that I shot from a helicopter about two days after the fire started.
02:33I chose it because it's one that really stood out to me.
02:39It was just a splash of color among a sea of gray devastation, and it was hard not to
02:47choose.
02:49It also seems to have struck a chord with people.
02:52I think it gives people a little bit of hope, and that's one of the nicest things about
02:58what I get to do for a living is, you know, sometimes pictures move people, and this really
03:04seems to have done that.