Photograph courtesy of May Gallery
On December 26, 2004, photojournalist Murat Türemis was in Cologne, Germany when a 9.3 earthquake struck the Indian Ocean. “I realized it was something different than before,” he says. But that was the day after Christmas, and many of the people who could give the OK to go weren’t available, while others didn’t think that was much of a story. Türemis went anyway.
With no assignment and only 400 euros in his pocket, he headed to Banda Aceh, Indonesia, which was the hardest hit country of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami at $4.4 billion in damages and more than 122,000 people dead. “It’s amazing how big the destruction was,” he says. To see how much the area had changed in five years, he returned in January 2010 and photographed the same places and people. His then–and–now photos make up the exhibit, After the Tsunami, on display at the May Gallery at Webster University.
Türemis spent four weeks in Banda Aceh with a small supply of film and no instruction from an editor. The result, he writes in the program handout, is “pure photography.” His before shots are black-and-white panoramics that show details of the destruction without exploiting it. “As a photojournalist, you do have to work,” Türemis says. “[But] no picture is more important than the life of the other ones…If I can help, I help first, then I take pictures.”
It didn’t take Türemis long to get to the tsunami–stricken area (he arrived in early January 2005), though there were a few hurdles. His passport was due to expire in two months, and Indonesia required an entrance visa. He tested his luck and flew without a visa, obtaining one at an airport in Indonesia, virtually impossible to accomplish on an expiring passport. Sure, Thailand would have been easier to get to, he says. No visa needed, but it was a vacation hotspot for Westerners and Türemis was confident that plenty of press would be there already. And he was right. The first images of the tsunami came from Thailand, and for days afterward, more photos and video footage from Thailand and Sri Lanka arrived. Türemis thought the media focused too much on those countries and not enough on Indonesia, which was nearest to the quake’s epicenter.
It took him eight weeks to get a visa for his return trip to Indonesia, but once he arrived, Türemis says he found nearly every person he photographed in 2005 still living in the same area. For the most part, he says, life there after the tsunami is “tremendously positive.” There are several new schools built by UNICEF, as well as modern medical facilities and a rebuilt cement factory. Those aren’t everywhere in Banda Aceh or Indonesia, but it’s a start. This time around, Türemis took color photos. A shot of a bride dressed in vibrant reds on her wedding day was taken near a mass grave, an example how “life comes back,” Türemis says. “In every country, they start again.”
After the Tsunami is at the May Gallery, located on the second floor of the Sverdrup Business/Technology Complex, 8300 Big Bend, through November 24. Monday–Friday, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m; Saturday & Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. Free. For more information, call 314-246-7673 or go to webster.edu/maygallery.
