It looks like a photo taken by a dead man.
In the foreground, a red Ford Pinto with a vintage motorcycle hitched to its bumper is parked on a dirt road lined with trees. Behind it, an ominous tower of ash rises miles into the sky, seemingly just over the hill from where the camera is positioned.
It is among the more astonishing photos depicting the eruption of Mount St. Helens—few images capture the beauty and horror of the moment so directly, and in such painterly tones.
