When a powerful earthquake struck Myanmar on 28 March 2025, it tore through communities already living under the shadow of armed conflict and chronic instability. In the tangle of collapsed homes and fractured lives, it laid bare the brutal convergence of natural hazard-induced disaster and manmade violence – a crisis within a crisis, testing not only the resilience of survivors but also the principles that guide humanitarian response.

In this post, ICRC Communication Delegate Stephanie Xu reflects on what it means to photograph humanity at the intersection of conflict and catastrophe. Her lens captures both the visible wreckage and the quiet dignity of those rebuilding amid despair. Marking three months since the earthquake – and in a year marking the 60th anniversary of the Fundamental Principles of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement – she shows how the principle of humanity continues to illuminate and inform the work of humanitarian actors responding in some of the world’s most complex emergencies.