Striking image of Quebec wildfire fighter amid burnt landscape wins World Press Photo award
CBC
Standing on top of a massive boulder, a young forest firefighter surveys the damage wrought by Quebec's worst wildfire season in recent history. Nothing but thinned-out, charred trees and a stark sky surround him.
The black-and-white photograph, captured last summer by Charles-Frédérick Ouellet and titled A Day in the Life of a Quebec Fire Crew has just won the North and Central American Single Photograph award at the 2023 World Press Photo contest.
Ouellet spent more than a day in the life of a fire crew. In fact, he was part of one as an auxiliary firefighter with the province's wildfire prevention agency, the Société de protection des forêts contre le feu (SOPFEU), last year.
The photographer and filmmaker from the borough of Chicoutimi in Quebec's Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean region received auxiliary firefighter training for a documentary he was working on with fellow photographer, Nicolas Lévesque, in order to be able to document crews' work on the ground.
But when fires began to multiply in the spring, Ouellet and Lévesque decided to pitch in for the most gruelling parts of the season. In the ensuing months, more than 700 fires burned over 4.5 million hectares of Quebec forest.
"I've been working on [the subject of] wildfires for a while now, but this year obviously was quite a crazy year where everything was out of control," Ouellet said in an interview.
Being able to do the work itself became more than a way of gaining access and documenting wildfires and the people fighting them, he said.
"This immersive approach has always been part of my of my way of doing photography. I feel it's sometimes more about understanding the people that you photograph, learning from them, and sometimes seeing from what they tell you about," he said.
The World Press winning photograph depicts firefighter Théo Dagnaud in a forest north of Lac Saint-Jean that had already burned on July 13, 2023. A small crew, including Ouellet, had been dispatched to make sure nothing was burning in the area anymore.
"We were making sure that there was nothing left on the ground really because it was a reburn site and since this rock was there as an extraction point, it was a great site where we could overview the whole area," Ouellet said.
A reburn site, in wildfire fighting, is an area where fire has already swept through but which could still contain flammable materials that could reignite.
The photo is among 24 winning projects and six honourable mentions to be highlighted by the contest this year. The selected photographs will also be part of the annual World Press Photo exhibition, shown in 60 locations around the world, including Montreal.
"The jury viewed this single as a potent symbol of the struggle against climate breakdown, serving as a metaphor for humanity's collective arrogance. The image's iconic composition — reminiscent of a monument — poetically embodies the grief and gravity of the environmental crisis," the World Press's Jury Report said.
Ouellet called the award a "huge honour, especially as a documentary photographer. It's one of the highest rewards that you can get in the world of photojournalism."
After walking a few laps around the shop, Maria Castagna picks up a glass ornament in the form of a pink, sparkly ice cream cone and smiles widely.
Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham says he has much unfinished work from his first term in office, as he prepares to make his pitch to voters ahead of the 2026 election.
Moving to Canada from Singapore meant losing close social connections for Iris Akbar, but Akbar says the gift was in finding an affirming space with friends that became like family.
Women and children staying at Regina Transition House now have access to Santa’s workshop — a safe space where mothers can choose Christmas gifts for their children.
A man from Powell River, B.C., is thankful to be alive after a stranger helped him while he was choking at a restaurant during a visit to Whistler.
When it comes to Hamilton readers' favourite library books of 2025, romance and mysteries are in close competition.
From the Detroit Lions losing to Apple iPhones that spontaneously update, Windsorites had things that bugged them this year.
Calgary emergency rooms are “in a state of critical overcapacity” ahead of the anticipated peak of flu season — and to cope with the surge and wait-room crowding, officials are urging doctors to speed up their decisions on whether to admit patients, according to a memo obtained by CBC News.
Northern Ontario's highway system needs improvements in order to make travel safer, a highway safety advocate said.
Hundreds of thousands of used tires are piling up across Ontario as some companies responsible for tire recycling have stopped processing tires amid reduced provincial recycling regulations for tire producers, industry experts say.
People in Guelph facing homelessness will soon have a new place to go during the day.
Islanders are reminded to plan their rides ahead of holiday festivities if they plan on drinking alcohol or using cannabis.
Even before Gwen Healey Akearok began her new role as Nunavut’s Minister of Family Services, she was tuning into the Office of the Auditor General’s (OAG) hearings on the state of the Family Services department.