Making of ‘The Hindenburg Disaster’ (by Sam Shere, 1937), 2014

The story behind the photograph…

The 1930s brought the age of the Zeppelin – the luxurious, majestic skyliner capable of transatlantic flight. However, on 6 May 1937, the LZ 129 Hindenburg caught fire as it attempted to dock at the Lakehurst Naval Air Station in New Jersey. Thirty-six people were killed (13 passengers, 22 crewmen and one worker on the ground). The disaster was widely covered in newsreels, photographs and Herbert Morrison’s anguished eyewitness broadcast for radio; motion-picture footage was even played in movie theatres across the globe. The event heralded the end of the airship era. Photojournalist Sam Shere (1905–1982) was present to capture the scene. ‘I had two shots in my big Speed Graphic,’ he later recalled, ‘but I didn’t even have time to get it up to my eye. I literally “shot” from the hip – it was over so fast there was nothing else to do.’ His spectacular, tragic photograph won him the Editor and Publisher Award for best news picture of 1937.