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Associated Press

Hollowed-out homes. Cars entombed by mud. Empty roads. Belongings reduced to dirt and debris.
It all took a toll on Taylor Schenker.
After Hurricane Helene last September, Schenker was upset by the deluge of images of Asheville, in the US state of North Carolina.
“This storm has taken so much,” she said, “and it’s so jarring to see the photos of the horrible devastation.” So less than a week after the storm, she set out to do something about the wide-scale loss.
While helping a friend search for belongings cast downriver, she stumbled on a handful of photos of strangers – mud-caked, curled up in tree branches and stuck under river rocks. The images showed family reunions, newborn babies, weddings, birthday parties, beloved pets and school portraits.
“These photos had miraculously washed up and were in decent enough condition that you could see what they were,” says Schenker, 27. “It stuck with me.”

To reclaim the search phrase “photos from Helene”, she created an Instagram page for “something positive, which is reuniting people with their memories”. She set up a post-office box, linked up with a volunteer search and rescue crew, and ultimately uncovered more than 500 photos.
When Schenker made her first match, she got chills. Then, sitting in her car, she cried.
Schenker has since returned more than 70 such images. A stack of them were hand-delivered to Mary Moss, whose car was destroyed by an uprooted tree as she and her husband evacuated the Asheville home where they had lived for almost 40 years.
“It was really kind of overwhelming at first when she handed me those pictures. I just couldn’t even speak,” Moss said. “You don’t expect something as fragile as photos to be retrieved.”
“This is not really about losing the home and all the material stuff in there. But what’s been devastating is that that was everything we had of Tommy,” she said, of their son who died at age 12 from a genetic disorder. “It’s those memories and the little things, the photos, that you can’t replace.”
As Schenker later understood it, “When they lost their home, they lost virtually all proof that this child existed”.

In photos Schenker found 5km (nearly three miles) from the Moss’ family home, Tommy is seen as a two-year-old, dressed like an angel for a Christmas pageant. In another, he is wearing a toddler-sized suit; in yet another, he’s playing at day care alongside his younger brother Dallas.
“It is just breathtaking,” Moss said. “This is one thing that the river didn’t get to take – or didn’t get to keep.”
More than 3,200km away, in the Altadena foothills of Los Angeles, Claire Schwartz, 31, began to collect photos with a similar idea: find images, post them online, try to unite them with their owners.
After the Eaton fire – one of six deadly wildfires that tore through parts of Los Angeles County in January 2025 – but before the first rain, she panicked. When rain and ash mix, it makes lye, which destroys photos.
“Someone has to do this ASAP,” she remembers thinking to herself. “And I realised it had to be me – because nobody else was doing it.”
Luca Ackerman, a New York-based photo conservator, cautions that mould can start to develop on prints 48 hours after water exposure. To slow the deterioration process, he freezes them – and advises to not wipe off any surfaces, which can drag toxic oils across the print, “driving particles deeper into the material”. Some photos are so brittle that when touched they may disintegrate.

In the wake of disasters, conservators like Ackerman are deployed in volunteer rotations with the National Heritage Responders. Rapidly, he trains art handlers and museum staff how to treat sensitive materials, whether they are damaged by smoke, water, ash or soot.
Wearing a respirator and gloves, Schwartz set out to salvage photos – finding them alongside pages from yearbooks, sheet music, and children’s art in nearby parks, neighbours’ front gardens and a golf course.
“The wind has scattered everything everywhere. And trash is mixed in with precious mementos, everywhere you look,” she says.
She adopted parts of her process she learned as an archival intern, protecting photos in acid-free, glassine envelopes and storing them in a waterproof box in a temperature-controlled room with good air circulation.
Recently, she made her first match: disposable-camera photos of teenagers, smiling, in prom dresses and glittering tiaras. The image is flecked with damage, but all four corners are intact.
“It’s funny – you formulate these ideas of who the person is,” Schwartz says. “She was kind of exactly what I pictured, just really friendly and bubbly and lovely – you could tell that just from her photos.”

Nearby is Joshua Simpson, a photographer who lost his Altadena home and studio, along with decades of film negatives, silver gelatin prints and camera equipment. But something meaningful survived.
“The very first thing we found was this beautiful vintage print of my mother-in-law holding my wife when she was a newborn baby.” The black-and-white photo carries an extra layer of poignancy, as his mother-in-law died just a few months ago.
“We were both pretty overjoyed in that moment. It felt a little magical finding that one,” he says.
When people survive catastrophic events such as wildfires or hurricanes, and then are left to cope with loss, they may express a wide range of emotions. Tragedies can also strengthen the ties in communities, and people like Schenker and Schwartz are exhibits A and B.
“Disasters like this really bring out the best in people,” Moss says.


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Natural disasters

The volunteers returning treasured photos lost in US natural disasters to their owners

Taylor Schenker has collected more than 500 lost photos, such as the one pictured, and returned at least 70 to residents of Asheville, in the US state of North Carolina, since Hurricane Helene hit the area in September 2024. Photo: Taylor Schenker

A photo of basketball star Michael Jordan in the early 1980s, taken by Tommy Moss, found after Hurricane Helene. Photo: AP

Taylor Schenker organises the photos found after Hurricane Helene into categories. Photo: AP

A photo found near Asheville of brothers Tommy and Dallas Moss playing at a daycare centre. Photo: AP

A photo of Francesca Pinto in front of a Christmas tree, found near Asheville, North Carolina, after Hurricane Helene. Photo: AP

Gen Z go retro, using 1st gen iPhone SE, iPhone 6s and 5s, digital cameras to take photos

The Apple iPhone SE is back in vogue among Gen Z and younger millennials, who use them to take photos as part of their flirtation with “retro” tech. Photo: Shutterstock

A view of the 2022 Apple iPhone SE. Many young consumers are now actively seeking out older phones, even older than this one. Photo: Shutterstock

Old digital cameras are also experiencing a resurgence. Photo: Shutterstock 

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Fire-ravaged homes in Malibu, California. Photo: Getty Images/TNS

Buildings destroyed by fire in the Pacific Palisades neighbourhood of Los Angeles. Officials are trying to convince people visiting the city is still safe. Photo: Zuma Press Wire/dpa

Homes destroyed by the wildfire in Malibu. Photo: Getty Images/TNS

An aerial image of La Costa Beach, Los Angeles, before the Palisades fire struck (top), and an infrared image taken after (bottom). Photo: Maxar Technologies / AFP

With its beachfront homes and palm tree-lined boulevards, Los Angeles has a picture-perfect image that attracts tourists. How much have the recent fires tainted it? Photo: Shutterstock

Gallery to sell signed copies of 36 photos Paul McCartney took at the peak of Beatlemania

Photographs taken by Paul McCartney during the Beatles’ famous appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964. Photo: AP

Some of Paul McCartney’s photographs from the “1963-64: Eyes of the Storm” exhibition (above) will be sold at the Gagosian gallery in Beverly Hills, California. Photo: AP

A visitor looks at pictures during a preview of “Paul McCartney Photographs 1963-64: Eyes of the Storm” exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, in London, Britain, in 2023. Photo: AP

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People gather outside the Bowery Ballroom in New York where Paul McCartney’s surprise show was held on February 11. Photo: AP

Lifestyle

Family & Relationships

When hurricanes, wildfires and floods destroy homes, volunteers rescue, preserve and try to return fragile lost photos to their owners


When hurricanes, wildfires and floods destroy homes, volunteers rescue, preserve and try to return fragile lost photos to their owners.


United States