The sky over the Pacific Palisades had turned the color? of rust, with the thick smoke blocking the late afternoon? sun. When I arrived just a couple of hours after the first? reports of the Palisades fire had come in, multimillion-dollar homes and the hills above them were already? on fire as I turned off Sunset Boulevard and entered? a residential neighborhood in the Pacific Palisades. The? roads leading out of the hills were filled with evacuation? traffic that clogged the winding streets. In contrast,? others had abandoned their cars altogether, shouldering? backpacks, pets, and whatever they could carry…??Philip Cheung is a photographer living and working in Los Angeles and has extensive experience in the Middle East, where he was previously based. His commissioned and personal work covers a range of photographic projects, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Los Angeles wildfires, the history of Chinese railroad workers in America, and the portraiture of celebrities and public figures.