Monday, October 21, 2024

The same catastrophy in three different journalistic graphic sequences

On September 6, 1889, at around 14:00, there was an explosion in the gunpowder and cartridge factory of Corvilain in Antwerp. The factory was located in the polders near Oosterweel. In the area around the docks and along the shipyard, houses were badly damaged. But there was also a lot of devastation in the rest of the city. The hospitals were flooded with wounded people. With 95 deaths, this was the biggest disaster ever to hit Antwerp in peacetime.
In our sample there are three journalistic graphic sequences about this catastrophe, published a week after the explosion.



De Vlaming,  anon.,‘Schrikkelijke ramp te Antwerpen’ 
Le Patriote illustré, Henri Cassiers?, ‘Catastrophe d’Anvers'
Illustration européenne, M.E. Drot, ‘La catastrophe d’Anvers'

Long shots are common in all three examples, because these viewpoints are ideal to present a context. Only once a close-up is used: De Vlaming ends by a focus on some exploded bullets (there's a Spanish text on the box: "para fusil" = for rifle). 

They all add text to explain what's in the pictures: captions right under the panel, or a number to refer to a general caption, below the page.

There's some variety in what they are presenting. All three show the devastation on the location of the catastrophe: in each sequence there is a drawing of the ruined pub, in two sequences the devastated petroleum depots figure. Le Patriote illustré presents only devastated buildings and a graveside, the other two include emergency workers collecting corpses from the rumble. All three journals focus on the immediate aftermath of the catastrophe: in two cases the fire is not yet extinguished, in Illustration européenne no fires or fumes are any more visible. In all three death is present, two times by the collection of the corpses, ones by the depiction of a grave. 

By comparison, also a photo book La catastrophe d'Anvers was published about the consequences of the explosion.

 


 


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