Through the Eyes of the New Zealand Police Photographers.

Written by The New Zealand Police and published by Hodder Moa in 2011. Large hardback with dust jacket, 206 pages and illustrated with many colour photographs. Removal of protective cover has left surface loss inside cover and creases to dust jacket.

At 12.51pm on Tuesday,22 February 2011 a 6.3 magnitude earthquake shook Christchurch city. It proved to be one of the worst natural disasters New Zealand has ever experienced. The earthquake devastated central Christchurch and many suburbs. 181 lives were lost and hundreds more were injured. A national State of Emergency was declared and the Christchurch Police immediately began Operation Earthquake.

Nine Christchurch Police Forensic Photographers were joined by 16 colleagues from around the country and began the grim task of documenting the disaster and its effects. With cordons surrounding the central city, they had full access to the restricted ‘red zone' and were able to take photographs ‘behind the scenes’ of the rescue and recovery operation. While the photographers core role was victim identification, they were acutely aware that what was going on around them had to be recorded, otherwise it would never be seen. This book is a collection of 256 of their photographs.

Christchurch 22.2: Beyond the Cordon is a timeless reminder of the devastation caused by a single act of nature. Equally, it is a stunning tribute to the heroic work of the New Zealand Police, Disaster Victim Identification teams and Urban Search and Rescue teams from New Zealand and around the world.

We all did the best jobs we could because we knew that might be the difference between someone being identified or lost forever. - Senior Constable Geoff Burns NZ Police Forensic Photographer