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.”