Tsunami: 10 Years On
Tsunami: 10 Years On
The Tsunami in December 2004 killed almost 250,000 people and left the survivors to pick up the pieces and start again. The violence of the wave, the deterioration of the land and the memories of those lost, left marks which deeply wounded the community in Sri Lanka and India. In order to provide appropriate humanitarian relief Christian Aid provided support for five years, re-building the infrastructure of the landscape and educating the children effected by the tragedy which bestowed the community.
Eight months after the Tsunami hit, Tim Hetherington was commissioned by Christian Aid to travel to India and Sri Lanka and document the effects the tsunami had on the environment. The body of work created by Tim was layered, complex and challenging for the different audiences who came into contact with the content. An ocean adored and feared by the community, a population re-building in uncertainty and school children masking their grief with theatre, drama and the visual arts. Each image captures the serenity and the destruction which wounded the community, a juxtaposition of forces and an endless tyranny of development. Tim not only captured these events to highlight the terrible loss, he captured the hope which kept the community rising.
The body of work created by Tim was called, ‘Every Time I See The Sea’ a title which matches Tim’s creative aims, ‘I was interested in the relationship the people have with the sea. They lived by it; they needed it and used it. When the tsunami came, it challenged the relationship.’ The coolness of Tim’s colour palette and the focus he has on the individuals subjected to life by the sea, highlights the power and threat the sea has as it circulates around the community which Tim is photographing.
Ten years on and the photographs continue to surprise. The layers, nuances and sheer power of the images reminds audiences to keep looking, keep finding new ideas and keep thinking about those lost and those working to survive, for a better future. The ten year anniversary of the disaster has been highlighted by Christian Aid in an online exhibition entitled, ‘Tsunami: 10 years after the wave’.
The exhibition explains how Christian Aid spent £45 million on humanitarian aid, rebuilding homes, providing trauma therapy and supporting people to get back to work. The exhibitions also showcases work including previously unpublished images by Tim.
Tim produced two short videos that talk about the trauma left by the 2004 Tsunami and which reveal some deep insights into Tim's approach to such deep human scars:
Head over to Christian Aid's website to see more.
