As the media storm fades around Tacloban and the devasting damage caused by Typhoon Haiyan locally known as Yolanda throughout The Philippines, The New Yorker has published a brief portfolio of the work of Stephen Dupont from his time spent on ground zero in November 2013.
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'Walking across the debris of broken wood, destroyed homes, and shops was like balancing on a tightrope. I wanted to capture not just the environmental damge and devastation but also the human tragedy,' he wrote.
'People sifting through the rubble for belongings or scrap wood to begin rebuilding a new home... The pressure this has on the human psyche must be immense. I saw one man standing in a small white building, the only structure left standing amongst the total collapse of everything else around. Why this one home?'
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The damage caused by Haiyan will take years of recovery and many areas unhighlighted in the media have been badly affected. With changes in the world's climate and greater storms an increasingly reality solutions to avoid the displacement and loss of human lives need to be found.
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Anna Maria Antoinette D'Addario
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The New Yorker article can be read here.
Photo by Stephen Dupont