On Dec. 31, 2024, Gayle Nicholls-Ali and her husband touched down in Nassau, Bahamas, to celebrate their 43rd anniversary and her recent retirement from teaching photography for 20 years. One week later, the Eaton Fire burned down their home.
“I not only lost my home, but I lost all my equipment and my photo studio,” said the founder of Altadena Photographers, a volunteer-driven organization created to help creatives recover from the Eaton Fire. “We were trapped in the Bahamas. My son kept telling us, don’t come back to LA. There’s no place to live. He was also displaced. In February, I started to formulate the organization and by the time I came back on March 11, it was already in full swing.”
“I decided to start the organization because I was looking online at what was happening in our community, and I saw that Brandon Jay had started Altadena Musicians,” she continued. “I know that I’m not the only photographer in Altadena. I know I’m not the only artist in Altadena. I commented on a post he made, and I said, who’s taking care of the photographers? And he said, why don’t you? I took him up on the challenge.”. . .
Read the entire article at Pasadena Weekly.
Jessica Koslow 