July 2023 was the hottest month ever recorded, and Rhodes in Greece was one of many places that faced scorching temperatures and wildfires. There were no human casualties but the fire ravaged about 135,000 hectares of forest and vegetation, burned more than 50,000 olive trees and many domestic animals, destroyed about 50 homes and led to the mass evacuation of tourists from the area.
I travelled to the region a month after the fires, making new work for my Burning World project. I choose not to document the flames but rather seek out their aftermath, the traces left behind on lives and landscapes.
The Ekaterini hotel in Kiotari, south Rhodes
While I was photographing, there was constant news of horrific wildfires taking place in multiple locations globally. With major blazes and many lives lost in Maui, Canada, Tenerife, France and nearby in northern Greece, there was an overwhelming sense of the climate emergency moving into a new gear – what the UN secretary general, António Guterres, is now calling “the era of global boiling”.
Moving through a seemingly endless topography of blackened hillsides and destroyed buildings, I could only bear witness to this human-made catastrophe. I hope these images can speak for all the landscapes and communities that are living through the climate emergency in such extreme ways.
Mary Laoudikou at her home in Kiotari
“I lived in this house for 25 years. I would wake up to the view of the sea. Now, after the fires, every morning I face a wall. From the first moment, my family assured me that after the end of the tourist season they would help me rebuild my house. I have to be patient, but it’s not easy.
Burnt trees in a valley
“I still can’t get over my emotions from the whole debacle. But I’m trying to be optimistic. Walking through my burned yard, it’s strange to see my lemon tree, which didn’t bloom for so many years and now, after the disaster, it’s already blooming.”
Maria Andria and her husband, Dimitris Nikolakis
The couple, both 55, lost two homes in the fire. This is their beach home in Kiotari. They also lost their family home in Asklipio village. She works at a waste management agency and he is a schoolteacher.
Sparse vegetation on a hilltop
“Within two days, we lost two houses. It’s so hard,” Andria says. “We had worked so hard on building them with our own hands. When I saw them burn, it was like a piece of my soul had also burned. I have not experienced such pain since the day that my mother died when I was 18 years old. I hope this pain goes away some day.”
Dimitris Hatzifotis at the Aggelakis Taverna in Kiotari
“Almost a month after the wildfires, I wake up every day with a nightmare that my pillow is burning. My dreams are full of fires and repeatedly I see the scene of my tavern burning. I never managed to take anything from my tavern. I regret not saving an old hammer that belonged to my dead father. It must have melted as I cannot find it.
The remains of a laptop at the Aggelakis Taverna
“Here at Kiotari, the wildfires burned everything: forests, houses, hotels, trees and my tavern. I went to save my and my uncle’s homes in the village and I tried to save many other people’s properties but we didn’t have water. Many people referred to me as a hero. I just tried to save as much as I could.”
Maria Petala, her husband, Giannis Pappavasiliou, and baby Dionisia at their home in Asklipio
“I found out that our house was on fire from a phone call, and I saw it burning from a video on Facebook,” Pappavasiliou says. “I wasn’t here to see my house burning; I had to leave with my wife and three kids to save our lives. We never thought our house would burn down when we left. The battle with the fires was uneven.
Boutique 5 hotel in Kiotari, South Rhodes
“The young community gave a huge fight to save our village; young people not only from our village but from the whole island. Some of them had never been to our village, Asklipio, before. That was very moving. We share our bonding and love in difficult times. The optimism I have during this climate crisis is from our community response.”
Georgia Hatjidiakou at her home in Kiotari
“This is the third time I’ve revisited my home and it’s so hard to see so much of my life burned. I am standing here broken. I moved to Canada when I was 16 years old and by the age of 23 I had three kids. I worked hard in Canada but I always wanted to return to my village at Asklipio, especially at Kiotari, where I spent my childhood summers.
A villa’s pool in Kiotari
“I came back 25 years ago and I built my life here again. I built this summerhouse with my own hands on land that is part of my family heritage. Losing a home is massive. I am probably not going to rebuild the house. It is hard for someone to experience the consequences of climate change at my age.”
George Papageorgiou at the Grec cafe in Kiotari
“We all extinguished the fire from our houses with shovels, small water bottles and clothes. Otherwise, many places in Asklepio would have burned. We could have saved our villages and homes if there had been a power generator at the well and a water supply.
A fire-damaged expanse on Rhodes
“My family and I volunteered to help the hotels and tourists in the area a little further from our cafe. They assured us that the fire would not reach us, and somehow, while we were away helping others, our business burned down. We helped with hotel evacuations and offered food. It still feels strange because there are so many other shops in the row and ours got burned, not the others.”
Kirania Xrisafina in Asklipio village
“When we first came here after the wildfires, we saw the white exterior walls and didn’t think anything had happened. We were shocked when we opened our house doors. Everything burned here, and we are still breathing ashes. So many precious things were lost in flames. Some of my old holy pictures and family photos hanging on the walls survived, but the smoke blackened them. These are what I have left.
Damaged and surviving trees
“I was evacuated from my home on the first day of the fire and I stayed in Rhodes town for four days as here in Asklipio there was no electricity, no water. It’s so painful that our village is devastated. I am grieving and know I cannot rebuild my home at this age. My husband and I built our house in one month; he was a builder. I have experienced tragedy but I have never seen devastation like this in my whole life, and it’s been many years.”
Moslem Gohlami and Dimitra Stamatiou
“That was our house for 25 years,” says Stamatiou. “Today is the third time Ι’ve visited it. When it was already noticeable that the fire was approaching, I left first. I went to a friend in a nearby village as my breathing was getting worse. I would have needed more time to get my husband’s documents from Iran; I only got his passport. I am very concerned about the health effects on my fellow villagers. Now that I see the rest of the country burning on television, this is almost the same as what we experienced. This environmental catastrophe has awakened the ecological consciousness of the community.”
Glystra beach on the south-east coast of Rhodes
Gohlami says: “I returned to the Ekaterini hotel where I work, which had already become a safe place for the tourists from the surrounding hotels. We offered them food and water when they told us we had to evacuate the hotel as the fire approached. Immediately after the evacuation, I ran to our house in Kiotari to see what was happening.
“At first, the wind was from the other side, but when ash started to fall on me, I left immediately. We saw our house burned after two days. I come every day to our burned house to water the trees that either died or partially survived. I also come to feed our cats, which won’t leave even though everything is burned. A month later, we still can’t believe the extent of the fire. Βy Christmas we hope to have rebuilt our house.”
• Gideon Mendel travelled to Rhodes with Greenpeace.
