Gary Rosenquist

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Gary Rosenquist is an American amateur photographer who gained international fame in 1980 for his pictures of the Mount St. Helens eruption . Together with some comrades he camped on May 18 at the Bear Meadows campsite, about 18 kilometers northeast of the mountain in the endangered zone, and had already taken several photos of it. At 8:32 a.m., an earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale shook the volcano and the northern flank began to slide. From this point onwards, Rosenquist took dozens of photos in quick succession within just under 40 seconds, documenting the course of the landslide and the incipient lateral eruption. Rosenquist and his friends then fled north through the ash rain in their car. He later stated that he did not hear the eruption acoustically from his point of view.

"The sight (...) was so overwhelming that I felt dizzy and had to turn away to keep my balance."

- Rosenquist looking back on the outbreak

Rosenquist's photo series was subsequently cut together in many ways by both the media and academic circles. Due to the large number of individual images, the impression of an actual flowing film is created. Volcanologists used this film to analyze the events of May 18, 1980. It is also featured in both the 1981 film St. Helens, made by Ernest Pintoff, and The Eruption of Mount St. Helens! and The Building of the Earth , the first episode of David Attenborough's 1984 BBC nature documentary series The Living Planet . In 1990, Rosenquist played himself in the television documentary film Up from the Ashes and a year later took on a speaking role in George Casey's short film Ring of Fire, also as himself.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Susanna von Rose: Volcanoes . Gerstenberg Verlag, Hildesheim , 1997, ISBN 3-8067-4435-1 , page 14

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Rosenquist, Gary
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American photographer
DATE OF BIRTH 20th century