Greensburg: Susanne Walström

On the evening of May 4, 2007, a catastrophic tornado tore through the small town of Greensburg, Kansas, USA, destroying 95 percent of everything in its path and reducing the community to rubble. Photographer Susanne Walström had first visited Greensburg in 1993, documenting a sleepy Midwestern town where life moved at a slower pace. Now—more than three decades later, and 18 years after the tornado—she has returned to document its transformation. How did a town, almost entirely wiped off the map, choose not only to rebuild, but to do it differently—with sustainability as a central focus? What became of the people she once photographed? And what is it like to live in ‘Tornado Alley,’ a place repeatedly battered by violent storms?

At a time when the world is being rocked by one crisis after the next, the question of resilience and endurance is more significant than ever. With the book Greensburg, Susanne Walström has initiated a dialogue about the fragility of human existence that extends far beyond the borders of this small American town.