Explosion of the Hindenburg

"Explosion of the Hindenburg" - Murry Becker (1937)

Images can change the world. The reactions they provoke in people are what causes change to happen. The power of images is exemplified in Murry Becker's "Explosion of the Hindenburg" (1937). In May of 1937 the Hindenburg was making its first seasonal scheduled round trip between Europe and the United States. On May 6th, when the German passenger airship (or 'Zeppelin') was preparing to land at the Navel Air Station in Lakehurst, NJ, it suddenly burst into flames and fell to the ground within 37 seconds. Of the 36 passengers and 61 crew on board (totaling 97 people), 36 lives were lost in the disaster. Many journalists were at the site for what was initially thought of as a celebratory occasion, and as a result the Hindenburg disaster is noted for being the first airship crash that was captured on film, radio, and image. Herbert Morrison's eyewitness radio report during the disaster is part of the collective memory surrounding the event. Here we can hear Morrison, his voice racked with emotion, vividly described the scene:

The memory of the Hindenburg disaster and the power of the photograph resonated throughout the 20th century. As confirmation of this assertion, the Hindenburg disaster was often brought to mind by journalists on the occasion of a similarly spectacular tragedy: the explosion of the space-shuttle Challenger in 1986. Many commentators, attempting to describe the explosion, searched for an event of similar visual shock from the recent past, and all found a striking parallel in the Hindenburg disaster image of almost 50 years previously.

This photo was taken by Murry Becker, who was a staff photographer for the Associated Press. He took 15 shots of the incident. What makes this photo especially horrifying is not only the air ship up in flames, but the scale one gains from being able to view the people running for their lives and watching from the ground. The black and white contrasts of the photo add to the terror that the image conveys; that in which I would describe as "a nightmare brought to life".

The photos were terrifying, and the images that they would convey, as well as the technological ability to circulate them around the world, would change an industry forever. Worldwide publicity of the well-documented disaster shattered the public's faith in Zeppelins, which were at the time considered the safest mode of air travel available. Because of this, the demise of the Zeppelin hastened. The golden age of travel by airship was instantly killed by the photograph that was syndicated around the globe.

Resources:

No Caption Needed: Iconic Photographs, Public Culture, and Liberal Democracy. "Oh the Humanity: A Second Look at the Hindenburg Explosion". Accessed April 8, 2013.
http://www.nocaptionneeded.com/2012/05/oh-the-humanity-a-second-look-at-the-hindenburg-explosion/

Ted Talks. "Jonathan Klein: Photos that changed the world". February 2010. 
http://www.ted.com/talks/jonathan_klein_photos_that_changed_the_world.html

Wikipedia. "Hindenburg Disaster". Last modified April 11, 2013.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindenburg_disaster