10 years of life, strife and glory

This past decade has been bookended by tragedy in New Zealand, but photographer Iain McGregor has also been there to capture moments of triumph and bear witness to issues which affect the globe.

This decade has been bookended by tragedy, but there also have been moments of triumph, and greater exposure for, and awareness, of vital issues. Stuff photojournalist Iain McGregor has captured many of those moments, from Pike River and the major earthquakes of 2011 and 2016, to Rugby World Cup glory, to documenting major environmental issues.

Based in Christchurch, McGregor was sent over to the West Coast in 2010 following the Pike River mine disaster, which claimed the lives of 29 men. He covered the raw emotion of families learning the terrible fate of those men, the fallout and even one of the subsequent explosions at the doomed mine.

Mere months later McGregor was in the thick of it back in Christchurch when the devastating 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck in February 2011. He was in The Press newsroom, when the building partially collapsed. Escaping the building he saw horrific scenes, dying and injured people, rubblestrewn streets and collapsed buildings.

In stark contrast later that year, he was at Auckland’s Eden Park for the All Blacks’ first Rugby World Cup win in 24 years.

Sporting glory was also on the cards when the All Whites went unbeaten at the Fifa World Cup in South Africa in 2010, while two years later McGregor was on hand to see Hamish Bond and Eric Murray claim rowing gold at the London Olympic Games.

In 2016, earthquakes were again on the work agenda, when the massive 7.8 magnitude quake hit near Kaiko¯ ura in November. Road access was all but destroyed so McGregor and others initially saw the destruction by air, before landing and getting a sense of how people were faring, and later, piecing their lives and livelihoods back together.

In recent years some of McGregor’s work has seen him look at environmental issues, with trips to Antarctica and more recently Henderson Island in the Pacific Ocean to see the effects of plastic pollution.

Earlier this year he covered the National Remembrance Service at Hagley Park, following the mosque shooting on March 15.

Rescuers help remove a woman from a collapsed building on Cashel St, soon after the devastating 6.3 magnitude Christchurch earthquake hit in February 2011. Below: The collapsed PGC building where 18 people died.