Photographer Timothy Hogan reflects on the December 2017 wildfire near his home in Ojai, California.
I moved to the mountain town of Ojai in December 2016. An hour and a half drive from Los Angeles - it was the perfect combination of close enough, yet far enough away from the madness of Los Angeles.
On Monday night, December 4th, I received a text about a fire in Ventura.
The following morning a text from a friend in Ojai informed me the Thomas Fire had crossed the mountain. It doubled in size overnight in the stiff Santa Ana winds and burnt hundreds of homes in Ventura, Upper and East Ojai.
The Thomas fire grew over the next month to be the largest fire in California History - 281,893 acres. In comparison, the 33 Boroughs of London are 390,400 acres... so picture most of that... burnt to a bit of a crisp.
Never having witnessed something like this first-hand - I was determined to find the beauty in this new landscape. Now - keep in mind not all of Ojai looks like this. The town itself is basically the same, just with more love and sense of community. But off in the hills, through valleys and up into Los Padres National Forest you'll find barren fields of Chaparral and Manzanita, Live Oaks that have disappeared into ash - and my favourite - these lone survivors.
