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Tsunami: Images of Resilience

Resilience never dies—a book of rare photojournalistic images tells stories of survival

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Tsunami: Images of Resilience

Tsunami: Images of Resilience

Tsunami: Images of Resilience

Tsunami: Images of Resilience

Tsunami: Images of Resilience

Resilience never dies—a book of rare photojournalistic images tells stories of survival

Resilience never dies—a book of rare photojournalistic images tells stories of survival

Resilience never dies—a book of rare photojournalistic images tells stories of survival

Resilience never dies—a book of rare photojournalistic images tells stories of survival

Birgitte Rasine
Birgitte Rasine
Birgitte Rasine
Birgitte Rasine
1 Campaign |
San Francisco Bay Area, United States
$10,442 USD by 71 backers
$10,355 USD by 68 backers on Dec 26, 2014
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A RIVER RUNS THROUGH

$125 USD
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January 2015
5 out of 50 of claimed

WATER MOLECULE

$7 USD
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DROPLET

$15 USD
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4 claimed

RIVULET I

$25 USD
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PARALLEL STREAMS

$50 USD
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RIVULET II

$55 USD
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AQUIFER I

$65 USD
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WATERFALL I

$85 USD
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2 out of 100 of claimed

BRIDGE OVER WATER

$120 USD
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WATERFALL II

$175 USD
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1 out of 100 of claimed

AQUIFER II

$250 USD
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DELTA COMPANY

$300 USD
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TRIBUTARY LEADER

$550 USD
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WATER TABLE

$3,500 USD
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Note of Gratitude

Tuesday, December 2, 2014.

4:04 pm Pacific Standard Time.

Right here on Indiegogo.

On December 2, #GivingTuesday, we received an extraordinary swell of support and went from 19% to 103% funded in less than 24 hours. Dan and I were stunned, thrilled, humbled. But most of all, grateful—grateful because the promise we made to the people Dan photographed ten years ago can now be fulfilled.

Because of all of you.

THANK YOU.

Here is the project web page, enjoy!

Stretch Goals

We have set the following next-phase goals for this project to realize our long-term mission:

POSTCARDS: $750 to print a set of 5,000 5x7 postcards with inspirational captions. We'll print several different images from the book, for a total of 5,000 postcards to be distributed at presentations and workshops for all ages on survival and resilience. Postcards double as exercise tools as participants can write notes on the back.

SCREENSAVER: $250 to put together a digital package of images with inspirational quotes (and another version with captions from the book) you can upload to your desktop and use as a screensaver.

PRESENTATIONS IN SCHOOLS: $2500 to put together a first series of workshops and presentations on the subjects of strength, survival and resilience in the face of trauma and/or disaster, whether man- or nature-made, and conduct these events at local Bay Area high schools and colleges. We are working with the California Health Medical Reserve Corps on this.


The Tsunami

Sunday, December 26, 2004.

00:58:53 am Coordinated Universal Time.

160 km off the west coast of Northern Sumatra, Indonesia.

The world sleeps blissfully after the holidays. A 9.1 earthquake suddenly explodes deep beneath the Indian Ocean, setting off a series of tsunamis that swallow the shores of 11 countries and rip $9.9 billion in damages. Over quarter of a million people lose their lives; hundreds of thousands are left injured, homeless, or destitute.

That was the Indian Ocean Tsunami. 

Dan and I wanted to do something to make sure the world never forgets.

The Book

My name is Birgitte Rasine. I'm an author and producer based in Northern California. In January 2005, I approached ICLEI, a non profit working with local governments all over the world on sustainability, with the idea of a photography book to celebrate resilience, rejuvenation, and rebuilding in the aftermath of the tsunami, not death and destruction that so much of the mainstream media was focusing on. 

ICLEI loved the idea and gave us a travel grant; in March 2005 I sent photographer Dan Root to India and Thailand, the two countries where ICLEI had support personnel. He came back with hundreds of stunning photographs—images as evocative and meaningful today as they were the moment he took them. 

After Dan's trip, we ran into a few roadblocks that forced us to table the book idea.  So we built a website with what was left from the initial funds—the site is still up to this day.

But Dan and I never gave up hope that one day, this book we intended to produce, this promise we made to the people Dan encountered in the tsunami-affected areas, would become a reality.  

You can now hold that reality in your hands.  

With the sea changes taking place in the publishing sector, we no longer need a major publisher to give us the green light for this book. We have our own imprint, LUCITÀ Publishing, which has already released a number of titles.  

TSUNAMI: IMAGES OF RESILIENCE is a gorgeous full-color hardcover book of Dan's most striking and memorable images from India and Thailand. You can see some of the images from the book in the "Gallery" tab above.

We're also producing a digital version of the book—an eBook for your iPad, Kindle, Nook, or Kobo eReader.  

The print book is 112 pages, 10x8 landscape format.  The interior of the book will be printed in luscious four colors on 80lb matte paper.
The book layout is simple yet elegant:

  • Five sections of photographs: After the Wave, Water, Rebuild, Home, and Family. Poetic captions and quotes from Dan's original field notes accompany the images.
  • Personal statements by Dan and Birgitte 
  • Caption index that provides details about each image and where it was taken
  • A list of the international aid organizations active on the ground in the months following the tsunami


The Prints

What is a book without its best images printed in fine archival format, adorning the walls of your home? We have selected ten of the most powerful images from the book and are making them available as fine prints. The Gallery tab above showcases these ten prints (plus a few more images from the book).

The selected photographs will be printed with archival inks on Hahnemühle Fine Art Pearl 285gsm 40 mil paper and will be signed by the photographer, Dan Root. Available in two sizes, 8'' x 12'' and 16'' x 24''.

Here's one of our favorites, its light and texture reminiscent of Rembrandt: "Making Poori."


The Team

Dan Root is a Portland, Oregon-based photographer and former photojournalist who has shot for Nike, adidas, Manchester United, the Oregon Food Bank and many other companies and organizations. When he's color balanced too many images at a stretch he goes off fishing. See www.drootphoto.com.

Birgitte Rasine is a literary author, publisher, producer, and entrepreneur based in Silicon Valley. A former journalist for the Hollywood film industry, she is a member of various publishing organizations. Her idea of a great vacation is rubbing piranhas' bellies and swimming in ancient Mayan canals in Latin America. See www.birgitterasine.com.

Luba Ortoleva is a classically trained artist and designer originally from the Czech Republic based near New York. She's a true Renaissance woman—print, web, animation, and actual art drawn by hand, she can do it all. When threatened by a lazy Sunday, she can whip up a mean homemade crêpe.

Andrea Jiménez Guerrero is a designer based in Bogotá, Colombia. In addition to her work on this book, she’s also the head of design at a startup providing graphic, web and digital design services.  When she’s not at her desk, she loves to dance and chase new musical rhythms.

Our publishing assistant Amanda Broughton is a budding photographer in her own right; on this project she's supporting us with research and marketing & sales outreach. On top of it all she's incredible with kids.

Special thanks to Balanza (www.balanza.de), an amazing band from Germany that composed the music used in the video you've just seen, and to Chris Hornbecker, the man behind the camera. (Haven't watched it yet? Go back up to the top of the page!)


Use of Funds

Dan and I have put in countless hours of our time and resources combing through all of the images from his trip ten years ago, all over again; optimizing and color balancing them; working with the designers to lay out the book; writing the text and supplemental materials. And shooting the video you see at the top of this page.

In short, for us this is a labor of love.  What we do need your help and support on is funding the physical printed copies and the eBook version of TSUNAMI: IMAGES OF RESILIENCE.  We seek to raise an initial $9,006 in funding, which will enable us to print and store 1,000 copies and produce the eBook.

Here's how it breaks down: 

  • Four-color printing (1K copies): $7,006
  • Fulfillment, storage, and order processing fees: $500 
  • Image optimization for CMYK and RGB colorspace, digital production, conversion, & beta testing: $1,500

The funds are going not to us individually but to LUCITÀ Publishing, the publisher of TSUNAMI: IMAGES OF RESILIENCE and the publishing arm of LUCITÀ Inc., a company that has been in business since 1999.

#GivingTuesday update:

We have reached our initial funding goal of $9,006. Upon discussion with some of our collaborators, we have decided that instead of simply printing more books, we are going to devote our stretch goals to producing other types of products with these images that we can employ in workshops, conferences and other events that engage participants in discussion on survival, strength, and resilience (see Stretch Goals above).

However, our original plan for the one thousand copies of the book still remains:

The net profits from book sales will be utilized to donate and distribute the books to schools, libraries, cultural institutions, trauma prevention centers, disaster preparedness programs and other similar entities and initiatives, including in India and Thailand where the images were taken. 


It's Never About Just a Book

We may understand the words and numbers that describe the destruction caused by the tsunami, but we may not easily resonate with those words and numbers.

But when we look at a single image, an image of a human being—a man, a woman, a child—who survived the Tsunami, we can instantly relate. We can feel that person’s pain, that person’s loss as strongly as we feel his or her courage, strength, resilience, and hope for a new future.

This is why this book is a book of images and not words or numbers.

And because we believe in the power of the image to reach far beyond its source, its place of origin, we're working with selected partner organizations and groups to harness these images to raise funds for disaster preparedness programs in the regions impacted by the Tsunami on the one hand, and on the other, to inspire and support survivors of other disasters and traumatic events not related to the Tsunami. This collaboration may result in photography exhibits, seminars, presentations, fundraisers, and other types of events and initiatives.

Please see our campaign updates for more information on the development of these efforts.


Risks & Challenges

We've waited ten years to produce this book; we're not going to let anything stop us. But we need your help to print those first one thousand copies and produce the eBook. 

We are no spring chickens when it comes to publishing—Birgitte is one mean book producer and Dan leaves entire busloads of photographers in the dust when it comes to image optimization and color balance (not to mention how awesome his images are in the first place). We're blessed with two incredible designers, and a community of friends, colleagues, and more friends who believe in this project and the power of these images as passionately as we do. If not more so.

We have already received the first hardproof of the book and it's gorgeous.  In other words, the design and layout are done and the files are at the printer's, ready to be transformed into living breathing books.

So, there's little to zero chance of us not being able to deliver—barring a stampede of ravenous chihuahuas busting down our printer's doors in the middle of the night (but they have insurance against that. We think.).

Ditto for the fine archival print facility we have selected—they're a shop in Portland, Oregon that Dan has worked with in the past, so there's an established relationship there.

As far as the eBook is concerned, we manage the entire process from start to finish, beta test on multiple devices, and upload our own files so we have total control over the final product. Those of you who've read our other titles in eBook format know the quality of our work.

Now that we have secured funding for the one thousand copies we set out to print, we are turning our attention to our stretch goals. So we STILL need your support, but this time it's to help us and our collaborators take this project to the next level. The more support we have, the more products and uses we can produce with these images, and the more hands can touch these pages that have waited ten years to be produced. And the more likely that with proceeds from book sales we will be able to support the wonderful initiatives and programs designed to help local populations in the tsunami regions learn about tidal surges and tsunamis and plan routes of escape as well as early warning systems.


Dan on assignment in India.


How Else Can I Help?

Whether or not you can contribute financially, there is so much more that you can do to support TSUNAMI: IMAGES OF RESILIENCE:

  • Spread the word, email your friends, make some noise!  Let's make this campaign go viral—if we get enough likes/tweets/pins we may be featured in the Indiegogo newsletter!  At the top of the page, below the video, are links and buttons you can use. 

  • You can also mention this project to your loved ones, friends, and colleagues via email or in your newsletter if you publish one.  The short URL for this campaign is http://igg.me/at/tsunami-resilience

  • If you have a favorite bookstore, library, school, or museum that you feel might benefit from having a copy (or several) of this book, email us your recommendations.  Send your note to books <at> lucita <dot> net.

Thank you, from all of us, for taking the time to read about this project.  If you have any questions please email us at the same email as above or drop us a note in the comments.

~ Birgitte, Dan, and the rest of the team

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