American Photography 42 Winners

DEATH OF A HOME: Spirits of Place / Rose Petal Ceremony

The Kennedy Family, atop footprint of lost home, Altadena, CA. DEATH OF A HOME: Spirits of Place / Rose Petal Ceremony. March 2025. Image from a series exploring parallels in mourning between human loss and home loss through the symbolism of the ubiquitous white hazmat suits that haunted Altadena’s vast burnscape the year following the apocalyptic Eaton wildfire. Worn by waves of cleanup crews, volunteers and residents visiting and excavating toxic decimated properties, their luminescent presence became a poignant and poetic evocation of figures universally associated with life, death, trauma and healing such as surgeons, coroners and spirits wresting with unimaginable sudden loss. With global warming increasing the frequency and destructiveness of wildfires, "Spirits of Place" also serves as a pictorial requiem for a dying planet.

DEATH OF A HOME: Spirits of Place / Like a Prayer

A volunteer group helps excavate on lot of home incinerated by Eaton fire, Altadena, CA. DEATH OF A HOME: Spirits of Place / Like a Prayer. February 2025. Image from a series exploring parallels in mourning between human loss and home loss through the symbolism of the ubiquitous white hazmat suits that haunted Altadena’s vast burnscape the year following the apocalyptic Eaton wildfire. Worn by waves of cleanup crews, volunteers and residents visiting and excavating toxic decimated properties, their luminescent presence became a poignant and poetic evocation of figures universally associated with life, death, trauma and healing such as surgeons, coroners and ghostly spirits wresting with sudden, unimaginable loss. With global warming increasing the frequency and destructiveness of wildfires, "Spirits of Place" also serves as a pictorial requiem for a dying planet.