July 2023 was the hottest month ever recorded, and Rhodes in Greece was one of many places that faced scorching temperatures and wildfires. There were no human casualties but the fire ravaged about 135,000 hectares of forest and vegetation, burned more than 50,000 olive trees and many domestic animals, destroyed about 50 homes and led to the mass evacuation of tourists from the area.
I travelled to the region a month after the fires, making new work for my Burning World project. I choose not to document the flames but rather seek out their aftermath, the traces left behind on lives and landscapes.
The Ekaterini hotel in Kiotari, south Rhodes
While I was photographing, there was constant news of horrific wildfires taking place in multiple locations globally. With major blazes and many lives lost in Maui, Canada, Tenerife, France and nearby in northern Greece, there was an overwhelming sense of the climate emergency moving into a new gear – what the UN secretary general, António Guterres, is now calling “the era of global boiling”.
Moving through a seemingly endless topography of blackened hillsides and destroyed buildings, I could only bear witness to this human-made catastrophe. I hope these images can speak for all the landscapes and communities that are living through the climate emergency in such extreme ways.
Mary Laoudikou at her home in Kiotari
“I lived in this house for 25 years. I would wake up to the view of the sea. Now, after the fires, every morning I face a wall. From the first moment, my family assured me that after the end of the tourist season they would help me rebuild my house. I have to be patient, but it’s not easy.
Burnt trees in a valley
“I still can’t get over my emotions from the whole debacle. But I’m trying to be optimistic. Walking through my burned yard, it’s strange to see my lemon tree, which didn’t bloom for so many years and now, after the disaster, it’s already blooming.”
Maria Andria and her husband, Dimitris Nikolakis
The couple, both 55, lost two homes in the fire. This is their beach home in Kiotari. They also lost their family home in Asklipio village. She works at a waste management agency and he is a schoolteacher.
Sparse vegetation on a hilltop
“Within two days, we lost two houses. It’s so hard,” Andria says. “We had worked so hard on building them with our own hands. When I saw them burn, it was like a piece of my soul had also burned. I have not experienced such pain since the day that my mother died when I was 18 years old. I hope this pain goes away some day.”
Dimitris Hatzifotis at the Aggelakis Taverna in Kiotari
“Almost a month after the wildfires, I wake up every day with a nightmare that my pillow is burning. My dreams are full of fires and repeatedly I see the scene of my tavern burning. I never managed to take anything from my tavern. I regret not saving an old hammer that belonged to my dead father. It must have melted as I cannot find it.
The remains of a…
2023-09-01 01:00:08
Original from www.theguardian.com
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