Commercial director and still photographer Laurie Rubin is on the assignment of a lifetime. She is the sole still photographer on the expedition that will search for wreckage of aviatrix Amelia Earhart’s plane on the 75th anniversary of her mysterious disappearance in the South Pacific on July 2, 1937.
Nationally known Rubin, represented exclusively by STORY since 1999, is part of 19-person team – and only one of two women on the team — of the TIGHAR (The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery) Earhart Expedition.
She had been recommended by a member of Discovery Channel’s three-man crew shooting video for a two-hour special to air later this year.
Rubin left with team by ship on July 3 and will arrive July 9 at the Nikumaroro Island for the 10-day underwater search for the remains of Earhart’s Lockheed Electra. She is expected to return to Chicago in early August.
Before leaving on the monthlong expedition, Rubin said, “I saw this as the opportunity of a lifetime. I am very excited to be part of this history-making expedition that is so different than my advertising film and print work, which is more controlled and predictable.”
The search takes place underwater of the west reef slope of Niku, formerly Gardner Island, where it is believed that Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, ran out of gas and ended up marooned on the remote and uninhabited coral reef, leaving in their wake one of the greatest mysteries of the 20th century.
“The public wants evidence, a smoking gun, that this is the place where Amelia Earhart’s journey ended,” said Richard Gillespie, TIGHAC executive director. “That smoking gun is Earhart’s plane.”
Expedition Earhart’s objective is to locate, identify, and photograph any and all surviving aircraft wreckage. No recovery of wreckage is contemplated. The expedition will test the hypothesis that the more massive parts of the aircraft traveled down the reef slope and came to rest in as yet unexplored depths, according to the expedition’s official mission statement.
If wreckage is found, the imagery acquired on this expedition will be used to mount a subsequent recovery expedition equipped to safely retrieve and properly conserve whatever remains of the craft wreckage.
Daily reports will be posted on the TIGHAR website at Niku Dailies.
Rubin recently directed commercials for clients including Kellogg’s and Whirlpool, via Leo Burnett, and Sears/Y&R.
