Displaced #7 – LA
Evocative stories of people who have to leave their homes due to climate change.
When westarted the DISPLACED project, it was clear that wildfires would be one of thetopics to be covered. With last year’s journey to Greenville in NorthernCalifornia, which was destroyed by the Dixie Fire, we also addressed the topicright at the beginning of this project.
When thedevastating LA fires broke out, Elias kept telling us when we were working inthe Philippines that we should definitely make another trip to California. Ofcourse he was right, and soon the question was no longer whether we should go,but only when this trip should take place.
In recentweeks, it has unfortunately become clear to our UN partners that the cynicalpolicies of the Trump administration have direct consequences. Both the WorldFood Programme and the International Organization for Migration are facingdrastic budget cuts. The IOM not only had to cut 250 jobs at its headquartersin Geneva, but was also forced to scale back aid projects worldwide and lay offthousands of employees.
We are verygrateful to the IOM for making it possible for a project like ours to come intobeing last year. Something that would have been difficult to achieve in thecurrent isolationist, purely self-interested political climate dominated by theUSA.
Thanks toanother generous donation from a private individual, the funding is now securedto the extent that we can undertake the remaining 3 destinations as planned. Atthe beginning of this project, we had high hopes for foundations, butunfortunately we only received rejections from this side so far. We aretherefore all the more grateful that the successful realization of this projectwas ultimately secured by private individuals.
But when itcomes to communicating this work and amplifying the voices and stories of allthe people we meet and portray, foundations can of course become very importantand useful again.
Mathias & Monika
BRASCHLER/FISCHER
+41 79 205 0330
visualimpactprojects.org
CH40 8080 8009 0719 6376 6
Hellgasse 4 – 5103 Wildegg
When the Palisades Fire and the Eaton Fire started on January 7th on the same day, both fires quickly got out of control and caused immense damage in LA over the next days and weeks, we knew there needed to be an additional chapter on the LA Fires in our project.
More than 15,000 buildings were destroyed, the damage amounted to an estimated $250 billion and over 150,000 people were displaced. It is one of the biggest natural disasters in the history of the United States and therefore simply too important an event not to address in our work – especially as there is a clear link between the intensity and frequency of wildfires and climate change.
So we set off on a trip to Los Angeles at the end of February. This time we were supported on site by our wonderful friend Ron Beinner, a former producer of Vanity Fair who now lives in LA. It was Ron who found Starr Parodi for us, a pianist and composer who regularly works for Hollywood studios. We met her and her family on our first day in LA in their temporary accommodation provided by friends in Playa del Rey. We quickly realized that there were certain parallels between our families. Starr worked as a creative team with her husband Jeff, they also had one child – Isolde, who is a few years older than Elias – and their home was also their studio, including an integrated recording studio. However, the parallels stopped with their house in January, as they no longer had a home. It had fallen victim to the flames, including their recording studio and all their belongings. Even the Grammy Award she won two years ago got destroyed by the fire. But the loss of her Steinway grand piano was the loss that hit her the hardest. It was also not a common Steinway. The instrument was used for decades in the MGM studios, for example in the movie “The Wizzard of Oz”. Starr said that it had an incomparable sound that touched you to the core and that she mourned this instrument as if a good friend of hers had died.
We only fully realized what an enormous loss Starr and her family had suffered when we visited their burnt-down house with them two days later. All that was left of the house, which had been situated in an incredible location at the top of the Pacific Palisades, were the ruins of the foundation walls. Absolutely everything was burned. The fire arrived so fast on January 7 that there was no time to pack anything. But it wasn’t just Starr’s family who were so affected. Most people could only save themselves and their loved ones, and their houses, all their clothes, furniture, documents, jewelry and memorabilia were burned.
Since we had a press pass, we were granted access to the now strictly cordoned off Pacific Palisades, and so we took a day to document the devastation in the Palisades. We were speechless as we drove through long neighborhood streets lined with burned down houses. We drove along endless rows of charred brick chimneys sticking out of the rubble. Burnt skeletons of cars stood on forecourts or in the remains of what used to be garages. Glass objects had melted in the incredible heat of the fire. Only now and then did a house suddenly stand intact in the midst of the destruction. But even these houses could no longer be inhabited until further notice, as they had been damaged by the smoke and heat and had to be renovated.
But not only the Pacific Palisades in the north of LA were hit hard, but also Altadena on the eastern edge of the huge metropolis was severely destroyed by the Eaton Fire. And in Altadena, as chance would have it, we met someone again who we had already portrayed over 20 years ago in our first collaborative project “About Americans”. Johnny Agnew, who is a bohemian, bon vivant and owner of the Funky Junk Farm. However, this is not a farm, but a site that was full of historic vehicles and vintage props of all kinds. Until the Funky Junk Farm was completely gutted by the Eaton Fire. Here, too, the flames spared nothing, neither the countless artifacts and vehicles, nor the warehouses and the private residence and Johnny’s wife’s colossal collection of vintage costumes. Johnny not only lost many priceless memories and unique historic vehicles, but also a cornerstone of his income, as he rented out his vintage vehicles and props to Hollywood studios. More than the loss of potential income, however, is the loss on an emotional level for Johnny. He has been a collector all his life and now everything is simply gone.
We spent a morning with Johnny at his devastated property as friends helped him search for things that had survived the inferno. But here as well, as in the Palisades, the fire had done a complete job and at the end of the morning Johnny could only conclude that the destruction was total.
Our trip to LA made it abundantly clear to us that the effects of climate change will lead to ever greater disasters and that everyone can be affected by such a devastating catastrophe – whether rich or poor.
