Blazing Lens: Capturing the Fury of Wildfires

Fire has always been a familiar element in the life of photographer Kevin Cooley from Altadena.

It has been a significant motif throughout his work. His fine art images have concentrated on smoke, explosions — including those he generates himself — and a man known as the Wizard of Awe who crafted fireworks in Southern Minnesota.

In his professional role, Cooley pursues and documents wildfires in California for a photography agency and media outlets such as the New York Times.

“It’s difficult not to feel drawn to the fire directly, but I often seek an angle to craft an image, a scene where the fires are set against a broader backdrop than just the burning home, the burning structure, the peril to people,” he expressed.

One of his cherished pieces is a photograph captured during the Woolsey Fire in 2018, which charred almost 97,000 acres in L.A. and Ventura counties and led to the evacuation of approximately 295,000 individuals.

This photograph was taken on assignment for The New Yorker and was also featured in a Times opinion editorial. Shot at a residence in the San Fernando Valley, the image exuded an uncanny Hockney-esqe quality in both its arrangement and symbolism.

“It’s of a house featuring a swimming pool in the backyard, a stunning landscape with the fire creeping over the wall behind it,” he recounted. “In a way, that symbolizes the end of the California dream.”

Cooley relocated to Los Angeles from New York in 2012, already accustomed to the city’s propensity for catastrophic wildfires, having undertaken assignments to photograph them previously.

His connection to his subject deepened five years later when the La Tuna Fire blazed across approximately 7,200 acres — making it the largest wildfire in L.A. history at that point.

That was in 2017, shortly after Cooley settled into his new residence, merely a week in, when La Tuna approached about a hundred yards from his home.

Rather than feeling apprehensive, he became increasingly intrigued.

“The ecology of Southern California consists of chaparral, and chaparral needs fire to thrive. Fire is integral to that ecosystem. We inhabit its territory,” Cooley remarked.

“That really heightened my interest in attending more fires,” he noted.

However, he added, “I definitely prefer going to the fires over having them come to me.”

At 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, January 7, a brush fire ignited in Pacific Palisades, escalating rapidly throughout the day, driven by damaging Santa Ana winds not seen in a decade.

That morning, Cooley was preparing a gallery exhibition in downtown Los Angeles for the West Coast book launch of Wizard of Awe, a compilation of images he took over the span of more than a decade of a man named Ken Miller, who manufactured substantial smoke generators at his farm in Minnesota for airshows and other grand events. Several of these images were published in Popular Mechanics magazine. Those images, along with the accompanying narrative, led to Miller being incarcerated for violating federal explosive regulations.

Miller was supposed to fly out to Los Angeles for the book launch that weekend.

However, as the Palisades Fire escalated in intensity, Cooley received a call to take on an assignment.

Consequently, he departed from the gallery and set out.

“I’ve amassed enough experience to gauge, you know, by examining various resources and perspectives from fire cameras. It’s like, ‘Okay, that’s a fire. I need to go.’ And so you go,” he stated. “That was the situation in Palisades that day.”

He and a companion spent hours in the Palisades capturing the extraordinary blaze — until he received a call from his wife indicating that a fire had ignited near Eaton Canyon and was rapidly expanding.

“From the photograph she sent of our home, I realized, ‘We need to return immediately.’ It was already quite severe,” Cooley remarked.

They rushed back to Altadena and witnessed firsthand the devastation occurring in his neighborhood.

“I thought the [Palisades Fire] was the most intense blaze I had ever encountered until I returned to Altadena. And that was even more intense, at least for me, because it’s my community,” he reflected.

Cooley, along with his wife and their 10-year-old son evacuated from their duplex near the junction of El Molino Avenue and Morada Place, which lies at the boundary of Altadena and Pasadena, around 5 a.m. on Wednesday.

After they found refuge in their friend’s Bungalow Heaven residence in Pasadena, Cooley made his way back north.

 ”Being the fire photographer that I am, I couldn’t remain still, so I returned directly to my house, and it was already ablaze,” he recounted.

A fiery wall was nearly swallowing his vehicle.

“I thought it might be wise to leave,” Cooley stated.

The experienced fire photographer mentioned after vacating his residence: “I simply cruised around the neighborhood as I usually do, though I recognized all the homes.”

By early Wednesday morning, January 8, mere hours after the onset of the Eaton Fire in Altadena, Cooley and his family lost their dwelling — similar to many other individuals in the vicinity.

He took to Instagram to share a video of his home being consumed by the flames.

The subsequent morning, one of the images he captured of the Palisades Fire was featured in the New York Times.

That afternoon, Cooley was showing me that photograph in the backyard of his friend’s home in Pasadena — as ashes from the wildfires raging across Los Angeles fell like snow around us.

He confessed uncertainty about the future, the direction to take, where he and his family might go, or if they would remain in L.A.

However, he emphasized that coexisting with wildfires has become an integral part of life in this city.

“If there’s an earthquake, it won’t be like we were blind to it. People residing by the beach are aware that the ocean is approaching,” Cooley elaborated. “It’s simply a part of our existence in this 21st century.”

Because a significant portion of Los Angeles hangs precariously on the brink of a paradise lost.

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The West Coast launch of Wizard of Awe has been postponed:

KEVIN COOLEY | THE WIZARD OF AWE
These Days
Location: 118 Winston St., Los Angeles
Event: Artist Reception + book signing: January 18, 7 – 9 p.m.
Exhibition dates: January 18 – February 1