In January 2023, photographer Devin Oktar Yalkin moved to Pasadena near Eaton Canyon, where he later documented the aftermath of disastrous fires. After the fire started, Yalkin faced the chaos while trying to locate a friend but prioritized evacuating his family. Upon returning days later, he took emotional photographs of the devastation. Yalkin approaches photography with thoughtfulness and care, focusing on emotional resonance rather than simply capturing action. He believes in reflecting his own experiences and emotions to create meaningful images that resonate with viewers.
To produce work about an ongoing disaster is ethically fraught: You are encountering people in distress and documenting some of the most difficult moments of their lives.
He moves slowly through a landscape, trying, as he told me, to 'spend time with a moment' and looking for images that will stay in a viewer's mind.
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