“Chronicles of a Heating Planet”: Marina Antonova’s Digital Anti‑Postcards of Paris’ Record Heat

As Paris finally cools after months of stifling temperatures, the relief is palpable — but the memories of France’s hottest summer remain vivid, preserved in the drawings of illustrator Marina Antonova. Her digital series, "Chronicles of a Heating Planet," documents a city under acute heat stress and highlights how prolonged high temperatures worsen the vulnerability of people experiencing homelessness.

A City Under Stress

Illustrator Marina Antonova works on a drawing for her series called "Chronicles of a Heating Planet" in Beaumont-les-Valence, southern France, on Sept. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)(AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)

Paris, celebrated for its beauty, made headlines this season for another reason: temperatures repeatedly climbed above 40 C (104 F) on the sun-baked streets. Antonova’s work captures that contrast — office workers sheltered in air-conditioned buildings while people sleeping outdoors suffered through relentless heat.

“The heat wave made it so much worse,” Antonova told The Associated Press. “Usually winter is the hardest part for homeless people; now we have a situation where both winter and summer are horrific.”

Her drawings show people clinging to their knees, hunched in despair or curled on pavements, rendered in an acidic yellow palette that conveys an overpowering, almost bullying sun. Antonova, 37, said she used the color deliberately to show how the sun felt aggressive and dangerous this year, and to reflect surrounding wildfires and smoke.

Illustrator Marina Antonova works on a drawing for her series called "Chronicles of a Heating Planet" in Beaumont-les-Valence, southern France, on Sept. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)(AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)

Nature and Neighborhoods on Fire

Antonova’s series also includes scenes of wildlife disoriented by flames — deer running toward fire because escape seems impossible — and images of forests burning. Wildfires swept across southern Europe and struck areas long considered safe, including a July blaze that reached the edge of Paris in the Fontainebleau forest. A historic inferno also destroyed woodlands near Bordeaux, while Italy, Spain and other countries across Europe endured extreme heat.

Illustrator Marina Antonova works on a drawing for her series called "Chronicles of a Heating Planet" in Beaumont-les-Valence, southern France, on Sept. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)(AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)

France’s national public health agency estimates that successive heat waves this year were associated with at least 7,200 excess deaths compared with expected mortality based on statistical models of previous years.

An Immigrant Artist Responds Digitally

Illustrator Marina Antonova works on a drawing for her series called "Chronicles of a Heating Planet" in Beaumont-les-Valence, southern France, on Sept. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)(AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)

Antonova moved to France from Russia four years ago and has often lived in temporary housing. That transience, together with limited funds and mental strain, led her to work primarily on an iPad — a medium she says gives immediacy and allows her to respond quickly to what she sees on the streets of Paris. Many images were drawn from photos she took on her phone.

Because of the heat’s impact on everyday life, Antonova calls the series “anti-postcards” — versions of familiar Parisian scenes rendered sinister and uninviting. “In five or 10 years Paris could get so hot people might not want to go here, not in summer, anyway,” she said, reflecting on the possibility that future heat waves could change tourism patterns and daily life.

What the Series Asks

"Chronicles of a Heating Planet" asks what ordinary life looks like when climate change is no longer a future projection but an everyday condition. Antonova’s images are not illustrations of a single event, she says; they are observations of a future that, in many places, has already arrived.