117th Boston Marathon - A Day of Tragedy

(All images © Leona Merk, All rights reserved)

Shot from the corner of Exeter and Boylston Street, 130 ft west of the first explosion.

Family rushes with other spectators away from the grandstands, up Exeter Street.

Race official directs crowd towards a safer location, away from the blasts.

Spectators caught between both blasts, surge into the street rush both directions of Exeter Street.

Runners and spectators look on as responders pull first victims from the blasts.

Police officer urges people to continue moving away from Boylston Street.

Race officials begin blocking off flow of foot traffic, as victims are being brought to Exeter Street.

A woman, whose hand was mangled in the explosion,
is brought to the first ambulance on scene.

An older man is turned away as he tries to check on the woman
in the ambulance.

A family holds each other tightly as they hurry behind the Boston Public Library, as a fire truck arrives on scene.

It has been exactly 3 years since my last post.  I have not visited this blog since that time, so it was a shock to realize that these consecutive posts are of the same event, however drastically different in imagery.

I began shooting a little after 10:15 am - initially on the bridge that overlooks the Finish line, then covering other areas of the event.  I wasn't fully happy with my images I had been making up until that point, so after dropping my full memory cards and my cellphone off at the nearby hotel to charge, I returned to the field with my wide-angle lens around 2:35 pm, excited to get more engaging, close-up images.

Because I had media credentials, I hung out directly on the Finish line in front of the VIP grandstands.  2:48:48 pm, I started to look for my next position.  I stared at the row of flags flapping down the side of Boylston, wanting to integrated them in an interesting composition.  However, I was looking for a particular vision.  The stantions that held up the flags pushed the crowds too far back from the road and runners, that I had to rethink my next step.  I wanted to get an image of spectators hanging over the barricades and waving posters at runners passing by, so I instead continued down the street on the same side as the Boston Public Library.

I got as far as Exeter Street, where I saw a woman in the crowd with her two daughters.  She spotted me, waving to the camera, as the girls looked up the street towards the oncoming runners.  2:50:32 pm, I then ran into the middle of the street and photographed a young girl being pushed by her mother, while her father pumped her fist up in the air as they passed by.

At that moment, I heard a boom behind me.  Turning around, I see a cloud of smoke billowing up into the air.  2:51:03 pm, I quickly snap two photos, hoping to capture the scene before the cloud  dissipates.  I see yellow balloons bobbing up into the sky.  I paused briefly, taking it in, trying to make sense of what was in front of me.  

At some point, only seconds later, another boom went off on the other side of me, in the direction of the oncoming runners.  I froze, anticipating more explosions to happen around us.  I feared another one occurring right next to me, just as much as I feared running in the direction of one if I fled.  I remember continuing to take pictures of crowds rushing by, security and race officials waving them up and down Exeter Street, victims being brought to its intersection with Boylston, while people looked on.

My feelings of angst suddenly leave me as I see a young boy being carried by a paramedic from the opposite side of the street towards the ambulance next to me.  2:54:47 pm, my photo-journalistic instinct set back in and I began voraciously shooting, afraid to miss a moment.  Through my viewfinder, I noticed his curly, strawberry-blonde hair standing on end, blood dripping from his left ear, terror in his eyes.  I couldn't see an adult with him anywhere... After rushing away from that scene, I recalled this image and broke down... This still has not yet left my mind....

(Note, during this time, on one of my cameras, the cover to the battery broke off in the middle of the chaos, so I was frantically swapping back and forth batteries and juggling lenses trying to capture what was in front of me.)

[To be continued...]