TITLE: Still Standing

Every September, when the Santa Ana winds begin to sweep across Southern California, I think to myself, “Here we go again—another season of mandatory power shut-offs and the nagging worry of our house burning down.” For the past several years, wildfires have ravaged vast parts of the U.S. In California alone, 4.2 million acres burned in 2020, 2.6 million in 2021, and 362,000 acres in 2022. The ongoing devastation continued in 2025 with the Eaton and Palisades fires, which tore through entire communities, leveling homes, businesses, and irreplaceable landscapes.
These “environmental” portraits capture the aftermath of the fires, many of which burned within a 30-minute drive from my home—such as the 2020 Soledad Fire, which consumed 1,500 acres and ended just a short walk from our backyard. The consequences of a changing climate and persistent drought are undeniable: the wild animals can flee, humans can evacuate, but the plants and trees stay behind, unable to escape their fate. They burn, often twisting into grotesque forms as they transform from living entities into charred stumps. And yet, in this grotesqueness, there is an unexpected beauty—one found in the fragile transition from life to death, where even in their final moments, these trees offer a hauntingly captivating resilience.

AUTHOR: Daniel Hu (United States)