Myanmar Earthquake

Dates

2025 - 2025
Author

Patrick Chengzhi Wang
Topics Documentary, Editorial, Social Issues
Location Mandalay, Myanmar (Burma)

This project displays the destruction and human suffering after the 7.7-magnitude earthquake in Myanmar on March 28, 2025.

The documentary project shows the destruction, refugees’ suffering, and situation in the aftermath of a 7.7 magnitude earthquake in Myanmar, the city next to the epicenter, Sagang, on March 28th, 2025.

The earthquake was one of the most serious in the country’s recorded history, which posed a huge economic impact on the country’s already fragile economy after a civil war and the coup in 2021.

The junta has strict restrictions on journalistic reporting across the country. With the help of my local friends, I cautiously avoided soldiers and police and maneuvered around the city.

The project partly comes from a commission by an American humanitarian aid organisation to document the destruction in Mandalay, Myanmar.

Workers clean up rubble of a collapsed building destroyed during the 7.7-magnitude earthquake on March 28th, 2025, in Mandalay, Myanmar.

A man walks down the ruins of a collapsed residential building destroyed during the 7.7-magnitude earthquake on March 28th, 2025, in Mandalay, Myanmar.

An excavator parks in front of a collapsed building destroyed during the 7.7-magnitude earthquake on March 28th, 2025, in Mandalay, Myanmar.

A young Myanmar carries a piece of distorted reinforcing bar out of the ruins of a building destroyed during the 7.7-magnitude earthquake on March 28th, 2025, in Mandalay, Myanmar.

A monk stares at the temple in which the floor and a wall collapsed during the 7.7-magnitude earthquake on March 28th, 2025, in Mandalay, Myanmar.

Pagodas destroyed during the 7.7-magnitude earthquake on March 28th, 2025, in Mandalay, Myanmar.

Pagodas destroyed during during the 7.7-magnitude earthquake on March 28th, 2025, in Mandalay, Myanmar.

A pagoda behind an intact Buddha statue was destroyed during the 7.7-magnitude earthquake on March 28th, 2025, in Mandalay, Myanmar.

A monk walks by a collapsed statue of mythical beast in Mandalay, Myanmar.

The ruins of a building destroyed during the 7.7-magnitude earthquake on March 28th, 2025, in Mandalay, Myanmar.

A collapsed building destroyed during the 7.7-magnitude earthquake on March 28th, 2025, in Mandalay, Myanmar.

A man passes by a truck loaded with distorted reinforcing bars next to the ruins of a building destroyed during the 7.7-magnitude earthquake on March 28th, 2025, in Mandalay, Myanmar.

Two monks pass by a building destroyed during the earthquake has its first floor completely destroyed on March 28th, 2025, in Mandalay, Myanmar.

A monastery destroyed on March 28th, 2025, in Mandalay, Myanmar.

Myanmar firefighters (orange uniforms) and the Russian rescue team (blue uniforms) are resting near an excavator which is demolishing the crumbling Great Wall Hotel destroyed during the 7.7-magnitude earthquake on March 28th, 2025, in Mandalay, Myanmar.

The ruins of a building destroyed during the 7.7-magnitude earthquake on March 28th, 2025, in Mandalay, Myanmar.

A homeless man stays with his existing belongings. He used to live in the condo behind, which was destroyed during the 7.7-magnitude earthquake on March 28th, 2025, in Mandalay, Myanmar.

Some abandoned furniture in front of a damaged building during the 7.7 magnitude earthquake on March 28th, 2025, in Mandalay, Myanmar.

A dog stays next to a damaged building where the first floor is destroyed during the 7.7 magnitude earthquake on March 28th, 2025, in Mandalay, Myanmar.

Homeless people in a refugee camp in the downtown of Mandalay, Myanmar, where the 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck across the country on March 28th, 2025.