'It's a terrible disaster… There's smoke and flames... The burning wreckage is falling to the ground... Oh, the humanity!' The legendary words of radio reporter Herb Morrison, moved to tears as he witnesses the LZ129 Hindenburg catch fire, burn completely within a minute, and claim the lives of 13 passengers and 22 crew members. Also present in Lakehurst, New York, on that fateful day, May 6, 1937, is Sam Shere (1901-1985), the American news photographer who takes what may well be the first disaster photograph ever that day.
The Hindenburg, a zeppelin nearly 245 meters long, with a diameter of 41 meters and a top speed of 135 km/h, made its first commercial flight in 1936 and was the pride of Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party, the NSDAP.
Legend has it that Hermann Goering, Germany's minister of aviation at the time, had come up with the idea of flying the craft around the world emblazoned with a swastika—as propaganda. That was precisely why early rumors suggested that the disaster had been an attack aimed at the Nazis.
An investigation years later, however, indicated that the fire was caused by a snapped cable that tore open one of the sixteen enormous hydrogen cells near the tail. A spark from a static electrical charge was then enough to ignite the escaping hydrogen and the zeppelin's flammable outer covering.
As famous as the photograph became, its creator remained just as unknown. Little more is known about the man who was in the right place at the right time than that, in those years—from 1933 through 1939—he worked as a news photographer for Hearst Publications in New York, that he received an award for his Hindenburg photograph, and that he then joined the staff of Life magazine as a war correspondent.
as far as is known, the first successful disaster photograph ever, a few seconds ahead of his colleagues…
After World War II ended, Sam Shere also ‘disappeared’ from view. At some point, word trickled out that he had retired and settled in St. Petersburg, Florida, where he died in 1985 at the age of 84.
Incidentally, despite the stormy weather, Shere was not the only photographer present at the disaster. Sources mention 14 and even 22 photographers and cameramen. Although Shere's image is regarded as the most striking, Murray Becker's photograph, showing the Hindenburg engulfed in flames as it makes contact with the ground, is no less spectacular. But as noted, Shere took—as far as is known—the first successful disaster photograph ever, a few seconds before his colleagues…
