Fragile Existance

My Photo scholarship 2010 entry

Worldwide | Monday, September 6, 2010 | 5 photos

I wasn’t originally planning on entering these photographs. But due to bitter happenstance I decided to enter the photographs of the disaster that soon followed my home city.
The earthquake that was measured at 7.4 happened at 4:30 in the morning; the epicentre being only a few kilometres from a city with a population of over 300,000. Almost immediately the suburb streets were filled, not just with debris but with a combination of sand, mud and dirt that erupted onto the streets like geysers blocking the gutters. A suburb named Kaiapoi was badly flooded with sewage water from a broken pipeline. The central business district was the worst hit with business and buildings indefinitely closed. Miraculously no one was killed, partly because of the time that the earthquake occurred and partly because of the strict building regulations. If it had been during the day, thousands would have died.

The subject is important to me, more so than the aesthetics of a photograph. I tend to see things as a framed narrative with a strong emphasis on the affections of humanity. If I were to be picked to go to Bhutan then I would take photographs with a strong emphasis on the human subjects or ones response to the changing times. I would seek a story and, if I’m lucky enough, be able to write that story in light. I hope to be picked because I take photographs because I know no other way to document life and I document life in hopes that one day someone will see my artwork and it will add something to their life.