Charles Apple

So, have you wondered just what the tsunami looked like Saturday when it washed over Hawaii?

Greg Holzman took the photos below of his son on a dock in Kikiaola Bay on Kaua’i island, after the all-clear was given but as the waves rolled in.

It apparently seemed like the tide was coming in and out all afternoon. Of course, it wasn’t the tide at all. It was the tsunami waves, which Holzman measured at about four feet, four inches. These pictures were taken about four minutes apart:

These pictures ran on the front of the daily Garden Island of Kaua’i, Hawaii, Monday morning:

Meanwhile, far more serious matters faced quake-stricken Chile. Here is the front of today’s El Mercurio of Santiago:

The main picture of the soldiers — sent in to stop the heavy looting reportedly going on — is by the Associated Press. More about that looting shortly.

The other big daily in Santiago — La Tercera — used a huge picture of homes in Pelluhue, southwest of Santiago, that were stricken first by the quake and then by the tsunami. The picture — and so many others I’ll show you today — was taken by Robert Candia of the Associated Press:

Equally shocking is the secondary art of the looter being held at gunpoint.

Many papers used that same AP picture of the mud-covered town today. Here is El Universo of Guayaquil, Ecuador:

It’s an awesome photo. Note how the designers are smart enough to run it large and get out of its way.

This is El Colombiano of Medellín, Colombia:

And a number of U.S. papers used it as well. Representing those is the Courier-Journal of Louisville, Ky., circulation 176,638:

The damage in the town of Pelluhue made particularly good A1 photos today. Consider this moving shot of a child surveying what’s left of his mud-covered village:

The picture is by Ivan Alvarado of Reuters. The paper is the Diário of Sao Paulo, Brazil.

The Los Angeles Times — circulation 657,467 — built its front page around that same picture…

…as did El Universal of Caracas, Venezuela:

The aforementioned Robert Candia of the Associated Press also sent pictures of folks wandering through the rubble of Pelluhue. This one was used to good effect by the Star of Ventura, Calif., circulation 86,276:

Same photographer, same location, different newspaper. This is the Times-Dispatch of Richmond, Va., circulation 133,161:

One of my favorite pictures of the day is this one by Candia of a man holding up a Chilean flag. Or, rather, what’s left of one:

That’s el Nuevo Dia of San Juan, Puerto Rico. The same picture was selected as lead art by the Miami Herald, circulation 162,260…

…and the Republican-American of Waterbury, Conn., circulation 50,903:

Here’s an AP photo of folks picking through debris in the town of Pelluhue, used by Los Tiempos of Cochabamba, Bolivia:

Here’s a particularly surreal shot on the front of Express, the commuter tab published by the Washington Post:

The picture is by Martin Mbernett of Getty Images. Average daily circulation for Express is 183,916.

Here’s another AP photo — this one was taken in Talcahuano. The paper is the Journal of Winston-Salem, N.C., circulation 81,930:

O Globo of Rio de Janerio, Brazil, built its page one around this wonderful photo by Jose Luis Saavedra of Reuters:

Note the dog on the roof of the house on the right. This was the city of Diachato, of which 80 percent was reportedly destroyed.

I’m unclear which city this is on the front of Diario de Pernambuco of Recife, Brazil, but you can see the tsunami washed boats onto the shore:

And, a few papers showed us the apartment building snapped in half in Concepción that many papers had put out front on Sunday. I’m not sure these pictures by Rafael Vallejos of EFE told us anything different today, other than perhaps having a closer angle.

Here is Pioneiro of Caxias do Sul, Brazil…

…and here is Diário Catarinense of Florianópolis, Brazil:

A few papers focused on rescue efforts. Here are workers breaking through a wall in Concepción:

The photo is by Daniel Garcia of AFP. The paper is Correio Braziliense of Brasilia, Brazil.

And here is an AP photo of workers lifting a deceased victim out of a building, also in Concepción. The paper is the Times of St. Petersburg, Fla., circulation 240,147:

El Universal of Mexico City attempted something risky: Instead of lead art, it placed three horizontal photos on A1, hoping the entire unit would serve as a visual centerpiece:

And, y’know, they pulled it off. Quite well, too. If I understand the photo credits properly, two of the three pictures are by El Universal staffers, too — some of the few staff photos I’ve seen so far come out of Chile.

Many newspapers chose to focus on the looting going on in the aftermath of the quake. And, unfortunately, the looting was widespread enough so that photographers had no shortage of subjects to shoot; designers had no shortage of looting art from which to choose.

This picture from EFE shows looters in a store in Concepción:

That is el Espectador of Bogata, Colombia. The same photo was chosen by La Nacion of Buenos Aires, Argentina:

Here’s a similar photo — also in Concepción — shot by EFE’s Geraldo Caso and used by Hoy of Quito, Ecuador:

Folha of Sao Paulo, Brazil chose that same picture:

More looting, also in Concepción:

That is Clarín of Buenos Aires. The picture is from Telam.

I’m going to take a wild guess here and say Concepción happens to be where photographers were assigned to shoot looting art. It strains my imagination to think the only looting was happening in that one city.

This next looting lead art is blurry and uncredited:

LaHora of Quito, Ecuador chose to play its lead art at the bottom of the page, as opposed to a more traditional top-of-the-page.

Here is Perú.21 of Lima, also using an uncredited photo of looters with groceries:

El Territorio of Posadas, Argentina, also used looter art from Telam. The immediacy in this one — there’s some blurring but we can still see the the faces of the fleeing looters — makes it my favorite looter photo of the day:

I’ll close today with my former paper, the Herald of Rock Hill, S.C., circulation 30,848. I love the headline here, which captures the ying/yang feel of these disasters:

Go here to find my roundup of Sunday’s earthquake and tsunami front pages from the U.S. and Latin America.

Earlier today, I posted my final critique of Winter Olympics fronts. Find that here.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 1st, 2010 at 11:18 pm and is filed under A look at the day's fronts, International newspapers, News design, Photojournalism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.