California: A Decade in the Middle of the Inferno
Josh Edelson
A child watches a burning neighborhood through the rear window of a car…Patients are evacuated as a fire approaches…A school is consumed by flames…Faces streaked with soot…Images of how people’s lives have been affected by wildfires of an unprecedented nature.
Since 2015, Josh Edelson has been covering California’s wildfires for Agence France-Presse. Based in San Francisco, he regularly works on the front lines of disaster zones. Trained in safety protocols by firefighters, he often operates autonomously in extreme environments. “I’m dressed exactly the same way the firefighters are,” he explains. “If an ember lands in your hair, your hair’s on fire.”
He has documented the dramatic increase in wildfires in the American West, fires that start earlier, burn more intensely, and spread more destructively each year. “Typically, fire season would start around July,” Josh says. “But everything’s gotten more extreme. The timelines just keep breaking the rules.”
Preview
From the Rocky Fire (2015) to the Camp Fire in Paradise (2018), from the Bear Fire (2020) to the Dixie Fire (2021), and most recently the Eaton Fire that swept through the Los Angeles area in early 2025, Edelson has documented the tangible effects of climate disruption. He has photographed scenes that few have access to: emergency evacuations, walls of fire, destroyed schools, skeletal remains of homes, dazed residents, and exhausted firefighters. In Altadena, he recalls, “everything happened so quickly… You had houses on fire, elderly people walking in the street through falling embers.”
Aware of the trauma unfolding around him, Josh remains respectful of the people he photographs. “I'm not going to force myself into a situation where people are uncomfortable,” he says. “I'll usually say, ‘Is it OK that I'm here? I'm really sorry you're going through this.’ And once they give me an OK, then I feel comfortable to just do my thing.” Even if, he admits, “the most emotional photos are the ones that are the most impactful.”
His photographs have been published around the world, featured on the covers of major newspapers and magazines like The New York Times and Time Magazine. They have also been shared by prominent political figures, including President Donald Trump and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
This body of work looks back at a decade in the field as California burned. A visual account of a state in crisis and a tribute to those who, against all odds, continue to live there.
