The Eruption of Mount St. Helens

Two photographers, Robert Landsburg and Reid Blackburn, were among the 57 people who died May 18, 1980. These are their final images.

Days before the the eruption of Mount St. Helens, freelance photographer Robert Landsburg wrote in his journal, “Feel right on the verge of something.”

On May 18, 1980, Landsburg was less than four miles away from the volcano when it exploded. He knew he wasn’t going to survive the blast so he rewound the film into his camera, pulled it off the tripod and stowed it in a backpack to try and preserve the photos. Seventeen days after the eruption, Landsburg’s body was discovered near his 1969 Dodge station wagon. His film survived.

Landsburg’s final photographs were published in the January 1981 issue of National Geographic.

“It contained not only telling images of the killing edge of the blast but also the scratches, bubbles, warpings, and light leaks caused by heat and ash, the very thumbprint of holocaust.”

One other photographer died that day. Reid Blackburn, a staff photographer at The Columbian, had been photographing Mount St. Helens for weeks, setting up remote cameras for the U.S. G…