Lahaina Caught Frozen in Time
- Victoria Elizabeth
- Sep 27, 2023
- 6 min read
The aftermath of 2023 Maui wildfires told through photographs.
"The historic town of Lahaina, and its legacy, is in ashes." - Matthew Thayer / The Maui News
The wildfires that devastated much of West Maui, especially the town of Lahaina, greatly devastated the entire world. Though Hawaii has been affected countless times by storms and hurricanes, it's not often that entire towns are burned to the ground with nowhere but the ocean for residents to flee.
Lahaina suffered the brunt of the disaster nearly two months ago now and any remaining fires have largely been contained, but the aftermath continues to this day. And in a world where every possible event is documented minute by minute, it only adds to the heartbreak of the tragedy that most of the related photos were only taken after the fires were contained.
Even in times of great distress, sorrow, or terror, I can't help but notice that today's world always seems to ensure that a good photo or video is taken at the heart of it. The lack of such for what occurred throughout Maui proves how heavy the situation was. While there are still a few images and videos of the actual fires consuming Maui, it's mostly photographs of the aftermath that allows the rest of the world to understand what Hawaii has suffered.
This first image, shot high and wide, captures the very essence of the wildfires' destruction. It only shows a small corner of Lahaina, and perhaps it could have captured more of the town, but what is already in frame ultimately tells the story on its own.
What I found very interesting about this photo is that it feels very apocalyptic, something you might see in a zombie or dystopian film. And yet, at the same time, it also gives off the same feeling as standing in ancient ruins and imagining what might have happened there years, maybe even centuries, before. You can easily imagine what it must have looked like for residents or even tourists driving along that road, trying to get away, only to abandon their cars and jump in the water. Kind of like the way you might imagine Ancient Romans running away at Pompeii. Or, you might imagine a scene in a futuristic film where the world ends.
It's unsettling. It shows what everyone in the world can't possibly imagine happening today. People are used to these kind of images from history books or fictional movies, not news stories from just a couple months ago. It makes people question how something like this could happen when we are more technologically advanced than ancient civilizations and "too real" for the apocalypse.
In this photo, it's almost the complete visual opposite of the first. It's a tight shot, with only a single, important detail to focus on. In a way, though still affective, the photo lacks a little more detail. The burnt page could have been laying in the rubble of this resident's home, or have some sort of background to show more of the aftermath. But it's the small, personal detail that adds more to the story.
Not only is the yearbook page burned, but it's old as well. We see that entire homes burned so completely that it reached the smallest of belongings, leaving very little behind. How much history was destroyed with only little fragments like this yearbook page all that's left to remember? How much was left for Lahaina residents to return to, and what is it going to take for them to recover and rebuild?
Now, when we hear about wildfires today, they often happen in forests or even mountains. We see photos and videos of the skies turned orange, smoke filling the air, and we hear about families needing to evacuate their homes before the fires/smoke reach them. But we don't often see wildfires affecting urban areas so directly.
We all know how dangerous fire can be, but how many of us have seen the way it melts cars from underneath and warps buildings to reveal their skeletons? How many people can say they've walked down a street that looked like this knowing they were safe from what caused the damage but couldn't save anything from it?
Though this photograph fits even less into the frame than the first, being a much closer shot, it presents the same paradoxical feeling while giving us much more detail. An ordinary man, seemingly safe and unharmed, standing in so much destruction is a rather jarring scene to look at, only furthering the feeling that the fires shouldn't have been able to happen.
Throughout the first three photographs, we've seen all that Lahaina residents have lost, but this portrait is the first to show what some may have found. While most, like Davilynn Severson, may have only found remnants, this woman seems to have found family. It is the first image to also remind us that so many others, besides people and the town itself were affected by the fires, and it's a relief to know that some animals were able to survive.
I believe most people tend to be more emotional when it comes to animals, and this photo makes the wildfires all the more devastating. I personally feel very heartbroken thinking about the animals that must have been so afraid, lost, and unable to protect themselves from the fire, and this photo does a really good job of pushing the audience's empathy to the surface.
The poor cat looks tired, maybe in pain, but this woman is holding her cat with so much love and care that it brings a little bit of hope to this story.
Like a few of the other photos, this is a rather close shot. The angle doesn't give us as many details, so we don't know how big this boat is and how many supplies there are, or where exactly they're going. But, also like the other photos, it's the details we are given that tells the story.
After news of officials restricting access to Lahaina, limiting aid to survivors, it is the volunteers and responders, the residents of Lahaina themselves providing the help that they all need.
While much of the world may be used to seeing the desolation of Lahaina and other areas of West Maui, the photographs of aid being provided are good reminders of the other side of the situation. Residents have lost so much, and they have been given so little help, but it's good to see that steps to rebuild are still being made despite of that. And though some of us may not have been affected, it's a reminder that we can still try and help in our own ways.
These five photographs in this arrangement capture the very throughline of Lahaina's story. They've suffered, and continue to suffer a great loss, but they have begun rebuilding and will hopefully find their footing again. Had I flipped the arrangement, the story might have felt a little hopeless. We would have seen that aid is being provided, families may be united, but how much can be done when the destruction is so great? I wanted to uplift the story in the face of all the destruction, even if only a little.
In an article, "5 Worrying Trends in Photography" by Illya Ovchar, he mentions the concerning disregard for ethics, and the only ethical concern I might point out in these photos is lack of privacy. Victims, natives, and residents have voiced their anger towards tourists or others intruding on a time when they deserve the peace to mourn. The same may be directed towards their pain, or more tangible things like the yearbook page, being photographed.
Regardless, I believe visual reporting is still impactful in today's image-saturated environment. Perhaps it's not as impactful as it once was, but good photographs still capture people's attention and often tell more of the story than words can. I'll admit that it's gotten more difficult to appreciate and "believe" photographs, so to speak, since photography has become more than taking pictures.
The excessive use of AI and post-production tools, which is another concern of Ovchar's, may completely take over visual reporting in the future. But there are already moves being made to combat that, such as the Content Authenticity Initiative, and as long as the world holds onto its morals, I'm sure visual reporting will remain as impactful as it has always been.
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