A comparison of images made a week apart in unincorporated Pasadena:
Eastbound Crary at Valencia - CA DSC 01168 1-07-25
Eastbound Crary at Valencia - CA DSC 9571 1-14-25
I have been photographing in Altadena and Pasadena so much since the Eaton Fire on January 7th that I have become behind in the blog posts I want to share related to that portfolio. I have been pretty good at reviewing images as I go and getting content into the portfolio on my website, but not as good with the blog and I have not worried about Instagram.
I attended Arizona State University a few years after Mark Klett completed his Rephotographic Survey Project, so I was very familiar with it and I loved the concept. I never studied under Mark there, but I got to know him, and I like him and absolutely respect his work. Since those days I have found most any project where a photographer chases another photographer’s tripod holes to be interesting, and I like to return to locations of my own photographs to document change.
Crary and Valencia is in unincorporated Pasadena about a block from my sister’s home which has been in the family for about 90 years. The one image is obviously from the night of the fire, and I made the exposure at a time I was really worried about where the fire was spreading to. Luckily at this point the winds were driving the fire in this area mostly South along Altadena Drive (as you look at the image that would be left to right).
When I made this exposure I could obviously see the mountains were burning and I thought the large orange glow at the end of the block was from Kinneloa Mesa burning, but the second image confirmed I was wrong since you can see the homes on Kinneloa Mesa survived. The glow was from a large townhome complex that had built along, more likely on, the Eaton Canyon Reservoir. To be honest I never realized they were there since they were tucked back in our of sight.
The car on the street burned but was removed before I got back to see it. These images are a week apart; I couldn’t get into that area at first because of LA County lockdown restrictions. I looked at the ground where the car was and I am assuming that leaves and other debris from the winds had piled up under the car and that an ember lit them on fire which burned the car. The palm tree trucks burned some but they survived, and the house appeared to be undamaged. I assume the fire engine which showed up for the car fire kept it from spreading to the homes.
The devastation I have photographed is so surreal, especially because I know the area so well. Comparing these two images I am still amazed how some areas came through the fire so well and other areas became rubble and ash.