RUIDOSO, N.M. – Until Monday, many evacuees could only imagine what they’d find based on the hundreds of photos and videos of the fires. 

Some of those came from a photojournalist who went from international battlefields to behind the fire lines near his hometown. KOB 4 spoke to him about what he captured. 

“I saw this giant column of smoke and thought OK, I obviously need to be a part of this,” said Tell Lowrance, a freelance photojournalist from Capitan. 

As many moved away from the fires last Monday, Lowrance and a colleague hiked in, snapping photos and telling a story. 

“Seeing it and feeling it are two different things. It’s its own monster like it’s got its own atmosphere and whenever you’re in the midst of the chaos, next to this thing, everything changes,” said Lowrance. 

Lowrance says his pictures give people a look at what the firefighters are up against, and a sense of what tore through neighborhoods and communities.

“This was a full on wall of chaos, it was. It was coming for them,” Lowrance said. 

When people went back to the places they call home Monday, Lowrance had already been there, documenting the aftermath of what he calls the “fire war zone.”

“Sharing a little bit of the truth of the situation, that’s what I was trying to aim for,” said Lowrance.  

He compares it to his time in Ukraine in 2022. He was there after Russia occupied the country. 

“Versus a war zone in say a combat dynamic it’s interesting, there’s a front line and so when you’re looking at the fire there’s also a front line except this one is moving towards you faster, and it doesn’t stop,” said Lowrance.