Chris Owen, The Stranding (DOCO 2024)

On 4th November 2023 I was at New Brighton Beach when a large shadow emerged in the waves. A large sperm whale had become stranded, a rare phenomenon on Christchurch's beaches. Over the course of the evening, word spread and hundreds of people flocked to the beach. The stranding was a sad and unusual event, but what fascinated me more was the collective response by local us as humans. The sheer number of people who set up on the beach to witness the whale's struggle was in itself unique, where people of all walks of life stood side by side on the beach, facing the whale, completely taken by its presence. It felt like there was a strong sense of community shared amongst people connected by a mix of sadness and hope. It was this story that I hoped to tell through images. I returned the following morning, hopeful to find the whale sucessfully floated back into deep water with the overnight tide. Sadly, the whale passed in the night, and after members of the Local Iwi spent a solemn morning with it, the whale was buried on the beach.

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.