#118 | David Butow | The LA Wildfires

David Butow returns to talk about photographing the Los Angeles wildfires. This is my third podcast with David. If you would like to learn all about David, his background and his amazing career, then please listen to Episode 10 and in Episode 68. Today's podcast is all about David's recent photographic assignment covering the Los Angeles WildFires. David Butow is a Photographer who has spent decades traveling the world on assignment for some of the world's most influential magazines. We met in China over 15 years ago and it was great to catch up and discuss his new book "Brink" looking at the events leading up to Donald Trump becoming the President of the United States, and also the breach of the Capitol Building on January 6th 2021. As always, you can listen to this podcast wherever you get your podcasts. To learn more about David: https://www.davidbutow.com Chapters 0:00 Welcome back David Butow 2:31 Starting where Sunset meets the PCH 5:00 Santa Ana winds near hurricane force 7:32 Sunset Boulevard from downtown to the coast 10:04 Covering fires as a newspaper photographer 12:32 Wind and fire in the Santa Monica Mountains 15:03 One spark and the whole house goes 17:32 Ten minutes with a family 20:04 Why it does not feel as scary as it looks 22:32 Building a longer narrative 25:00 Trees melting in front of you 27:34 Impossible to show the scale 30:06 A neighbourhood with no fire crews 32:30 A man who did not know if his house survived 35:02 Smoke, masks and limited visibility 37:33 A house that would be a total loss 40:07 Holding the line at Mandeville Canyon 42:33 Like a war zone 45:06 Residents trying to save their homes 47:33 Looting and Pam Shriver 50:07 House prices in LA 52:33 Helping a homeowner search the rubble 55:07 Altadena 57:32 Cities rebuilt after war 1:00:02 Shooting for his agency and CNN 1:02:35 The images that describe it best 1:05:03 Beachfront homes toward Malibu 1:07:36 About a hundred structures gone 1:10:06 How the week unfolded 1:12:33 Watching it unfold in your backyard 1:15:02 How could this happen? 1:17:36 People without insurance 1:20:06 LA's tough four or five years 1:22:37 A woman who lost her cat 1:25:05 Smoke and destruction in the news The Ryan Pyle Podcast is ad-free by choice. If you enjoy these conversations, you can buy me a coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/ryanpyle Ryan's TV series are streaming around the world. Follow the Podcast X: https://x.com/RyanPylePodcast Facebook: https://facebook.com/ryanpylepodcast Follow Ryan Pyle YouTube: https://youtube.com/@ryanjpyle Instagram: https://instagram.com/ryanpyle X: https://x.com/RyanPyle Facebook: https://facebook.com/ryanpyle https://www.ryanpyle.com