In my blog today I will be sharing the narrative of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire. The photographs of this horrible natural disaster captures the true tragedy of it all. The very first photograph is captured from farther out rather than up close and in all the action. The photo truly captures how enormous the fire was. We see an immense amount of clouds of smoke hovering over the land and all throughout the air. There are darker clouds closer to certain parts of the land due to an area with more intense of a fire. Just by observing the clouds in the photo we can also see that the fire is most likely still very active. Another photo depicts the aftermath of the fire. There are no houses to be seen, only tents and very little of people’s belongings scattered everywhere. The fire left these people with nothing, everything they had was gone in an instant. We see that they are left with the bare minimum through the photograph, they make the most out of what they have and do their best to help each other survive.
Not only do we see photographs of the San Francisco fire, but we also see many photographs of the damage of the 1906 earthquake that also took place in San Francisco. In multiple images there are buildings that are partly or fully crushed. Some buildings are at an angle almost giving the perception that they are about to fall over. The buildings weren’t the only thing damaged from the earthquake, the road and the ground people walked on was destroyed. In one of the photographs we see the ground parting creating a large crack all the way down the street. Other images showed more severe damage, it was as if the whole town had crumbled leaving nothing but brokenness everywhere.
The collection of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire consists of photographs only. The narrative is composed of only what the photographs show you. I think that a lot of details like what size earthquake it was that hit San Francisco and more information on the fire like how it started, how long it lasted, how much ground did it cover. Stories from people who lived through the horrific disaster would help fill in emotional parts of the narrative and add a more personal view. We could also use details of the damages and numbers of the injuries and deaths. A lot of this information can be retrieved from newspaper articles during the event and possibly even links to videos of the phenomenon.
Super cool analysis, Karina! I really like how much you described the pictures – it felt almost as if I were looking at them myself. You found a way to make it more lively than it had to be. Thanks for the good read!