Only 10 seconds took it to change the picture of a city forever. February 22, 2011, 12:51 pm local time in Christchurch, New Zealand: The earth boots, trembles, lifts and lowers with an unprecedented force and puts the center of the second largest city in New Zealand in rubble and ash. 185 people die under the rubble of collapsed houses. 10 years after one of the worst earthquakes New Zealand, the new arrang is noticeable, but he is just ahead. The natural violence has left scars in the picture of the city and in the psyche of its residents. There is a feeling that seems to commute back and forth between departure and stagnation. Two steps before, one back. Christchurch is slowly healing and tries to be a difficult mission: the city is looking for a new identity. Way from the dusty conservative colonial era, to a modern place that could reflect the diversity of New Zealand’s cultural heritage better than any other city of the country. The documentary photographer Nora Klein and the free journalist Alexandra Falk want to approach the feeling of a city in a reportage, which still has to fight with old concerns, but just reinvent itself with all the strength.
A project by Alexandra Falk & Nora Klein