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.