![From the LIFE / Google image archive comes this photograph from August 24, 1942, with the following caption:
“Huge explosion resulting from Japanese attack upon aircraft carrier USS Enterprise during Battle of the Eastern Solomons; photographer was killed while taking this picture.”
That seemed a bit hard to understand, or at least called for additional context. Subsequent searching yielded little information about the photographer, Robert Frederick Read, but eventually I found on this Wikipedia image page a contradictory account:
“According to the original photo caption in the US Navy’s archives, this explosion killed the photographer, Photographer’s Mate 3rd Class Robert F. Read. This image, however, was actually taken by Photographer’s Mate 2nd Class Marion Riley, who was operating a motion picture camera from the aft end of the ship’s island, above the flight deck and who survived the battle although his photographic equipment was damaged. The film Riley took that day, and of which this still was extracted together with others and published in Life, can be seen at this YouTube link (explosion at 03:05). Robert Read was stationed in the aft starboard 5” gun gallery and was killed by the second bomb to hit Enterprise. The smoke from the bomb explosion that killed Read can be seen in the upper left of this photograph. (Source: [1])”
I could find no photographs taken on this or any other day by Read, who is therefore known to the present world primarily by mistake.](http://17.media.tumblr.com/2KfNZVJcthnvcuhdbUOJZzyro1_400.jpg)
From the LIFE / Google image archive comes this photograph from August 24, 1942, with the following caption:
“Huge explosion resulting from Japanese attack upon aircraft carrier USS Enterprise during Battle of the Eastern Solomons; photographer was killed while taking this picture.”
That seemed a bit hard to understand, or at least called for additional context. Subsequent searching yielded little information about the photographer, Robert Frederick Read, but eventually I found on this Wikipedia image page a contradictory account:
“According to the original photo caption in the US Navy’s archives, this explosion killed the photographer, Photographer’s Mate 3rd Class Robert F. Read. This image, however, was actually taken by Photographer’s Mate 2nd Class Marion Riley, who was operating a motion picture camera from the aft end of the ship’s island, above the flight deck and who survived the battle although his photographic equipment was damaged. The film Riley took that day, and of which this still was extracted together with others and published in Life, can be seen at this YouTube link (explosion at 03:05). Robert Read was stationed in the aft starboard 5” gun gallery and was killed by the second bomb to hit Enterprise. The smoke from the bomb explosion that killed Read can be seen in the upper left of this photograph. (Source: [1])”
I could find no photographs taken on this or any other day by Read, who is therefore known to the present world primarily by mistake.
