City’s Record breaking Flash Photo Remembered as Anniversary Nears

By R. Gabriel Villalobos

Seventy four years ago this month, a local photographer set a world record that still stands today. And city historian Jameson Lucas said it’s a piece of Carlsbad history that deserves another look.

The photograph, taken by Tex Helm in August 1952, remains the Guinness World Record holder for the largest flash photograph ever taken. Helm, a Texas transplant who had previously documented Admiral Byrd’s Antarctic expeditions, settled in Carlsbad and became captivated by the nearby caverns.

“He figured out that he wanted to take the largest flash photograph ever taken,” Lucas said in a recent interview at the Carlsbad Museum. “And what better thing than the caverns?”

To pull it off, Helm secured sponsorships from Sylvania and I Graphics Camera Company, which provided 2,400 flash bulbs. Crews set up scaffolding along roughly three miles of cave floor. On the day of the shoot, Helm invited local photographers to capture images beside him and asked 150 Carlsbad residents to stand in a line deep inside the Big Room.

“He basically figured out that he wanted to take the largest flash photograph ever taken,” Lucas said. “He wanted to be in the Guinness Book of World Records for that.”

The resulting image is a sweeping, well lit view of the cavern’s vast interior with dozens of people visible against the ancient rock that helped cement Carlsbad Caverns as a global destination.

Helm’s work followed in the footsteps of earlier photographers Ray Davis and Robert Nymmire, whose images of the caverns appeared in National Geographic Magazine in the 1920s. Those photographs, Lucas said, were instrumental in putting Carlsbad on the map.

“From the very onset of this community in 1889, there was always a photographer around to take pictures,” Lucas said. “And because of that, Carlsbad has this rich treasure trove across a 130 year expanse where we’ve just got photos of everything, what used to be, who used to be, where things used to be.”

Davis opened his studio in Carlsbad in 1907, located behind what is now the Lucky Bull Grill. Nymmire, his protégé, purchased the studio in 1951 and carried on the legacy. The museum’s collection also includes work from Dale Sedwick, a contemporary of Nymmire’s, as well as decades of newspaper clippings from the Argus.

Helm’s record setting photo is now the centerpiece of a newly revamped exhibit at the museum. The display is part of a broader effort to refresh three exhibit cases that hadn’t been updated in 30 years.

“It’s just a treasure trove,” Lucas said. “It’s very, very special.”

Looking ahead, the museum is preparing for an even larger project: a new archives and research library set to open in 2027. The building, at 405 W. Fox St., was originally built as Denio’s Odorless Cleaners in 1947 and most recently housed a CrossFit gym.

The archives will unify the collection of the Southeastern New Mexico Historical Society, of which Lucas is secretary, which is currently spread across five locations. The new facility will allow residents to research genealogy, home histories, street histories, and local businesses.

“People can come and ask some of those historical questions of their town,” Lucas said, “and we can probably find stuff through our newspaper archives and through our photographic collection and through our collection of documents, ephemera, and books.”

As for Helm’s 1952 record, Lucas said it’s unlikely to be broken anytime soon.

“It’s still on record as the largest flash photograph ever taken,” he said. “And that’s kind of what this case celebrates.”

The museum, located at 418 W. Fox St, plans to mark the August anniversary with continued programming around the exhibit. “We have a wealth of information that’s ripe to be shared with the public,” Lucas said. “It’s very exciting to make that available.”