Your House

Creator

• Caroline Yuratich, Ursinus College

Preview

Student Exhibition Year

2026

Description

Series of twelve color digital photographs depicting the aftermath of the Eaton wildfires in Altadena, California. Presented as part of the 2026 Annual Student Exhibit in the Berman Museum of Art at Ursinus College.

Dimensions

8 x 10 inches each

Artist Statement

I was home with my family when the Eaton fires started. It was nighttime, and the fire was bright orange against complete black. We lost power and were watching transformers explode by candlelight. The following morning the sky was ash; grey snowflakes fell and covered the entire garden. We watched the fire grow on our little digital maps. I spent nights on the couch looking at the moon, which glowed a strange orange color. All you can really do in that situation is read your book with your flashlight and hope everything will be okay. We had go bags ready. The next morning, we went on a drive to look at the damage from the windstorm, and I took some photos out of the car window. People without masks cleared uprooted trees while ash fell around them, working in conditions that now require hazmat suits. It felt so unreal I could almost laugh; just the day before I had been repainting my room, and that night I was planning seriously what I would take from it if our house was lost.

I did not photograph Altadena directly after the fires because roads were blocked off and the land and air were toxic. Not knowing when we would have power back, we used the power we did have to scroll on Instagram and Facebook to find people talking through their evacuation plans and begging for help. Two weeks later I came back to Pennsylvania for school.

I went back to California six months later to find the roads opened and Altadena deemed safe. The uprooted trees were cleared, the sky was blue. After heavy rains from previous years, the mountains had become green; now, they were completely skinned. My mom and I joked that they looked like a hairless cat. On June 14th, 2025, Mom drove me around Altadena, where I took over 400 photos of empty, burnt houses and crisped up palm trees. I felt like a voyeur in my own home. I haven't been back since then. My photos document before and after the Eaton fire and my experience; how lucky we were and how unreal it all felt.

Now, Altadena is being sold and people still haven't moved back home. The fires will continue to get worse. Your house doesn't come back after it's burned down.

Rights Statement

Copyright of the underlying work is held by the artist. The digital image presented here is for educational purposes only and is not for commercial use.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.