Two women run with a bucket of water to help fight a wildfire in Carballeda de Avia. Ourense, Galicia, Spain
2026 Photo Contest - Europe - Stories

Burned Land

Photographer

Brais Lorenzo

EFE, Revista 5W, El País
17 August, 2025

Two women run with a bucket of water to help fight a wildfire in Carballeda de Avia. Ourense, Galicia, Spain

2025 was a record year for wildfires in Europe. More than 200,000 hectares burned across Galicia during Spain’s worst fire season in about three decades. The increasingly severe fires in this region are attributed to drought and heat intensified by climate change, rural depopulation, and shortsighted forest management policies, including the widespread planting of highly flammable non-native species. Born in Ourense, the photographer grew up with the smell of smoke every summer and has documented Galician wildfires since 2011.


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Brais Lorenzo
About the photographer

Trained in photography, geography and history, Brais Lorenzo’s work focuses on social and environmental issues. Lorenzo regularly collaborates with the news agency EFE and has also contributed to international agencies including Anadolu, Bloomberg and Agence France-Presse. His photographs have appeared in l...

Read the full biography
Technical information
Shutter Speed

1/2000

Camera

Z 9

Jury comment

This story offers an urgent and complete view of the wildfires devastating Spain, providing close proximity to the flames combined with the photographer’s personal perspective. Through a bold, unified palette, and varied compositions, the images convey the scale of the fires, the emptiness of depopulated villages, and the complex interplay between shifting landscapes, climate change, and the human cost of local policy decisions. By highlighting both environmental and social dimensions, the work situates the local disaster within the broader context of Europe’s rapidly expanding wildfire crisis.