On Monday, February 22 — five years to the day since the devastating Christchurch earthquake hit — photographers, including both NZIPP and non-NZIPP photographers, gathered in Canterbury to document what the city is like today.
Kim Hamblin was one of the photographers who took part in this event, and she explained that the group of photographers wanted to capture the city five years on from the exact time that the quake hit, as well as the hours either side, showing the new story of the city.
“This is not a city of bricks and mortar and broken roads, of crumpled houses and shattered lives — this is also a city regaining her purpose. Christchurch is a city of hope, showing that even when the worst happens, the best things can come of it. We are a city of people who worked together to help each other and who are now collectively rebuilding the city and all the lives within it,” Hamblin explains.
Photographers who participated in the event, to name just a few, included Tony Stewart, Bryan Isbister, Shar Devine, Marg Shaw, Kate Christie, Paul Willyams, Juliette Capaldi, Doug Richardson, and Jenna Young.
The photos in the gallery below showcase Christchurch as it is today — the people, the landscape, and the hope and strength that this city maintains.
“I hope that our images can show our region as more than road cones and red zones – rather that we can be an inspiration. We are a city of newness and exciting opportunity and of course a fierce Cantabrian Spirit.”
Lisa Gane, Lumo Photography
Ashton and Jack Fisher, with solo-mum Rebecca Gane, looking through a photo album featuring their dad, Adam Fisher, who passed away in the PGC building on February 22, 2011 — 10 days before Ashton was born and when Jack was three years old. Ashton was diagnosed with Leukaemia last year.
Doug Richardson
Diners enjoying lunch in New Regent Street, five years on from the February 22, 2011 earthquake.
Stewart Nimmo
Chess players in the Christchurch Square on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch earthquake
Stephen Goodenough
Self-portrait at 9 Liverpool St; Goodenough Residence.
“I was operating from a two-story Art Deco warehouse, which I renovated over two years, moving in 2004 close to Christchurch’s city centre, where I also lived with my family, until the earthquakes in February 2011. The ground floor was my photography studio and the first floor was our home. My children went to school in the CBD above the old bus exchange in the building that was once Arthur Barnett’s department store. [We were] never able to return to our building although it survived the earthquakes with no structural damage, it was taken by the crown and demolished mid 2014 as they wanted the land for future development for apartments so families could move in to the city, which is still cutting for us.”
Erin Waldron
Flowers decorating road cones in remembrance of the February 22 earthquake in Christchurch.
Tony Stewart
Marian College students at lunch, February 22, 2016, with the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament (Catholic Cathedral) behind in ruins.
Shar Devine
Positivity, even though progress is slow. Comments on fencing from girls from Marian College High School.
Juliette Capaldi, Etta Images
Ali Scott is a coach who has worked extensively with people suffering from the Canterbury Earthquakes, helping their recovery through NLP. She is now focused on the future for her son, Oscar, who has Down Syndrome. Every aftershock scares him. She is fundraising to get him to the Feuerstein Therapy Centre in Jerusalem; Israel.
Richard Linton
Remembering the 185 empty white chairs.
Angela Jones
Children running in front of their new school rooms at Prebbleton School.
Neil Williams, Tandem Photography
Debbie Albrecht, owner of a beautiful shop called So You. Debbie spent several years post-quake in a temporary mobile shop on Rangiora’s High Street. Last year she moved into a new location on a brand-new street in Rangiora called Conway Lane, which has added a new life to the centre of Rangiora.
Doug Richardson
What was once the Newstalk ZB building, is now covered in grass.
Antonia Steeg
River of flowers — Avonside Girls High School and members of the community commemorating the five-year anniversary of the February 22 earthquake.
Belinda Lansley
Leigh Davidson viewing the old Commerce building at exactly 12.51pm on the five-year anniversary of the February quake. Leigh was working in this building on the day of the quake.
Belinda Lansley
12.51pm at the University of Canterbury
Bryan Isbister
Remembrance service at Hagley Park
Craig Forster
Staff of Cassels & Sons, Little One, Aromaunga Flowers, and other retailers pause for a moment at 12:51pm at The Tannery Atrium in Woolston to reflect on the events of five years ago, while shoppers browse the unique shopping precinct that has popped up post-quake — a hub of creativity and hospitality, retail and craft.
Kim Hamblin
“It’s a hard one. I wish me and my friend weren’t in the CBD that day. It made me who I am today though — little did I know I had Charlotte growing inside me at that time. Before that day I was a self-destructive person that didn’t care about a thing. Now I care about everything,” says Rochelle Bell, pictured with her daughter outside the CPIT where she now studies.
Paul Willyams
Remembering at the PGC site.
Rochelle Bell
“We can’t help but notice all the positiveness around the city, and our favourite parts of the city have been the gap fillers and colourful murals. We are already planning on coming back to Christchurch in a few years to see all the beautiful changes of this city,” says Mike and Lesley from the UK.
Maria Buhrkuhl
Sophie Cawood, year 13 at St Margaret’s College, standing in the new chapel/auditorium at the school. Sophie was in year 9 in 2011 and has experienced first-hand the changing face of the school since February 22, 2011. Nearly every building in the school has been demolished and rebuilt in the last five years. After the demolishing of the school’s chapel, services and assemblies were held in a marquee. Now the school has fabulous new facilities, a new chapel, and the grass fields once covered in temporary prefab classrooms have now been restored. The sound of heavy machinery is no longer background noise to every lesson. Sophie travelled to Nepal last year with a group of students from the school and was once again caught in the terror of a tragic earthquake, which crippled the people of Nepal.