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Images frozen in time that changed how we view tragedy... Join us as we examine the photographs that captured devastating moments following history's most catastrophic events. From nuclear disasters to terrorist attacks, these powerful visuals document raw human suffering and environmental devastation, becoming eternal testimonies to mankind's darkest hours.
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00:00Once I returned to Kyiv, I processed my pictures, and I noticed the negatives were black.
00:08Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at images that captured raw devastation and tragedy in the moments following a disaster.
00:16Newsreel teams record the arrival, hoping to get some exciting pictures of the airship's landing procedure.
00:22Grenfell Tower fire, London.
00:24You could hear a lot of screaming saying, help me, please, please, please.
00:26On June 14th, 2017, onlookers observed in shock as the 24-story Grenfell Tower burst into flame against the night sky.
00:36Eyewitnesses and news media captured the terrifying moment as residents waved white cloths from upper floor windows,
00:43signaling for help amidst the blazing inferno.
00:46I opened the door. Black smoke came like that to our faces.
00:51Street-level photos revealed rescue efforts underway as firefighters emerged from the smoke, clearly exhausted, with their faces streaked with soot.
01:01The inferno claimed the lives of 72 people in what was the deadliest structural fire in the United Kingdom since 1988.
01:09The alleged misconduct and failures that contributed to the tragedy led to rallying cries for justice in the years of public inquiry that followed.
01:17Right now, people want answers, and it's absolutely right.
01:21The sinking of MV Sewol.
01:23As the ferry listed heavily to one side, orange life rafts floated near the half-submerged vessel.
01:30Juxtapose in that moment's frame are students in bright yellow life jackets, desperately signaling for help through the windows.
01:36On shore, distraught parents were seen clutching their cell phones and waiting for any news about the rescue for their trapped children.
01:43These images were captured by Coast Guard photographers and media crews when the South Korean ferry MV Sewol capsized off the southwest coast.
01:52It was one of the nation's deadliest maritime disasters, claiming 304 lives, most of which were high school students on a field trip.
02:00The MV Sewol disaster fueled calls for improved safety standards and accountability.
02:06Bhopal gas tragedy.
02:07Almost 40 years ago, this factory in Bhopal in India had a leak that released tons of poisonous gas.
02:14Photographer Raghu Rai's most searing image shows the small, lifeless body of a child, partially buried in the mud, her eyes eerily open.
02:23She was a victim of the gas leak from the Union Carbide India Limited Pesticide Plant in what is known as the Bhopal gas tragedy.
02:31The picture is a stark emblem of innocence lost in the chaos of a disaster that killed thousands and injured hundreds of thousands more.
02:383,000 people had died within the first few hours.
02:42Other photos from Rai and his fellow photographers documented the ensuing desolation of gas-shrouded streets, mass funeral pyres, and overcrowded hospitals,
02:52forcing the world to confront the human cost of industrial negligence.
02:56These photos stripped away any abstraction and sparked decades-long debates about corporate accountability and environmental justice.
03:04Has the industry learned anything from this tragic loss of life and the horrendous aftermaths that followed?
03:10Deepwater Horizon Explosion
03:12Imagine an inferno in the middle of the ocean.
03:15That was the Deepwater Horizon oil rig when it exploded, killing 11 workers and triggering the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history.
03:23Scientists are now reporting vast plumes of oil up to 10 miles long under the surface.
03:28As the disaster unfurled, aerial photographs showed the rig consumed by flames and thick black smoke.
03:35Nearby, a U.S. Coast Guard vessel sprayed arcs of water in a desperate bid to quell the inferno.
03:41Days later, photographs captured haunting images of seabirds browned by crude oil on a Louisiana beach.
03:48But the total spill is so much worse than BP let on.
03:51Today, the Deepwater Horizon explosion is etched in memory as a corporate accident that led to an ecological tragedy.
03:58BP says it's put many millions into a healthcare program and has paid $14 billion in claims by individuals, businesses and government.
04:07Mumbai Terror Attacks
04:08November 26, 2008 remains a haunting memory for the people of Mumbai.
04:13Their intent? To target Westerners throughout the city in a coordinated terror strike that will result in an orgy of death and destruction.
04:22A terrorist attack involved coordinated assaults in various locations, most famously at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel and the Chhatrapati-Shavaji Terminus train station.
04:32The terror was forever immortalized by the photos taken by Sebastian D'Souza of the Mumbai Mirror.
04:38D'Souza's photograph would show Ajmal Kassab, the lone gunman in the Terminus railway station, striding past lifeless bodies and abandoned luggage.
04:47Other images by the press captured the carnage as the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel became engulfed in flames.
04:53These photographs transformed a national tragedy into an international incident etched into global memory.
04:59Since then, changes have been made to India's counterterrorism plans.
05:03Hindenburg Disaster
05:05On May 6, 1937, a German passenger ship filled with highly flammable hydrogen gas caught fire and was consumed in flames in a matter of seconds.
05:14Within seconds, the Hindenburg is engulfed in flames.
05:18The 800-foot airship was called the Hindenburg, whose fiery end was immortalized in Sam Scheer's famed photograph.
05:25Taken moments after the Hindenburg erupted in flames, Scheer's image captured the terrified ground crew running towards safety, while others reached helplessly at the doomed Zeppelin.
05:35Scheer later explained that he took his iconic photograph without even looking through the viewfinder of his camera.
05:41Combined with the anguished cry of American journalist Herbert Morrison on the radio, Oh the Humanity,
05:47Scheer's photo is among the most enduring visuals of disaster in the early 20th century.
05:56Fukushima Nuclear Disaster
05:58In March of 2011, a massive earthquake and tsunami struck Japan, crippling the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
06:06It was the largest quake ever known in Japan, and one of the five largest recorded in the world.
06:11A severe nuclear accident began to unfold, and as workers desperately tried to stabilize the inevitable disaster, Reactor 3's roof was blown apart.
06:21The water level in Reactor Core 1 began to drop rapidly, causing temperature and pressure to rise, culminating in an explosion.
06:31Images flooded in from Kyodo News and other outlets, capturing the moment.
06:36The building's twisted steel framing laid exposed, with a pale steam drifting upward.
06:41Beyond the plant, aerial images by news agencies would document the devastation of the earthquake and resultant tsunami, in a moment where natural disaster met nuclear crisis.
06:53Pearl Harbor Attack, Immediate Aftermath
06:55On December 7th, 1941, Life magazine photojournalist Robert S. Landry scrambled to document the devastation caused by the Japanese kamikaze campaign at Pearl Harbor.
07:07His photographs were some of the first images to come out of the attack.
07:10Landry would capture the USS Arizona wreckage after a catastrophic explosion.
07:16Many of his photos were subjected to government censorship to protect military and weapons details.
07:21His photos of The Day Which Will Live In Infamy were not published until two months after the attack.
07:27By then, America's peace had been shattered, and the nation was thrust into World War II.
07:32Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster
07:34Igor Kostin was a photographer with a news agency, Novosti.
07:38When a friend and helicopter pilot phones him that morning to offer to fly him over Chernobyl...
07:42When an explosion rocked the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in April 1986, Soviet-Ukrainian photographer Igor Kostin captured the now-iconic images of liquidators on the plant's roof.
07:54My hands were shaking.
07:55I didn't know what world I was in, and I started snapping photos.
08:01These were firefighters and emergency workers who were shoveling debris by hand.
08:07Unbeknownst to them, the debris was radioactive graphite.
08:10Kostin's broader body of work spanned more than 5,000 images that documented the aftermath of the reactor's collapse,
08:17such as the abandoned city of Pripyat and the ravaged environment.
08:20The grainy, overexposed shots were themselves damaged by radiation, distinguished by telltale white streaks on the photos.
08:28If you look close, you can see traces of radiation on the film.
08:32I was holding the camera like this, and it was coming up from the ground, like that.
08:37Revealing a world frozen in time, Kostin's photos served as a visual documentation of the unseen dangers of nuclear fallout.
08:45You couldn't feel your teeth up there.
08:47Your mouth was full of this lead taste.
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09:06Atomic bombing of Hiroshima
09:08Moments after the U.S. dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima,
09:11Japanese photographer Yoshito Matsushige wandered through the devastated streets,
09:17for 10 hours.
09:18Injured and nearly blinded by the blast, Yoshito held onto his camera, which had two rolls of film.
09:24He managed to press the shutter seven times.
09:27Five of the surviving negatives portray unforgettable images of the aftermath.
09:32It was such an awful scene that I just couldn't press the shutter.
09:36Chief among them is the image from Miyuki Bridge, showing horribly burned school children, some with skin hanging in tatters.
09:44Other photos depict utter devastation, with buildings lying in ruins and fires glowing on the horizon.
09:51The only known images of Hiroshima taken that day, these photos eternally crystallize human suffering during the first atomic bombing in history.
09:59Was it cruel of me to photograph them? Or was it the best thing I could do?
10:04Which of these haunting images impacted you the most? Let us know in the comments.
10:08This is the first picture ever taken of the breach.
10:12Like you.
10:25modo
10:27Come on
10:31You
10:32You
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