The horizontal armored deck didn't give when the bomb went off in magazine. This resulted in the vertical bulkheads being blown out all the way to the bow. Then each deck collapsed on the one below it. This included the forward berthing area.
The bombs in the pram and the row of yellow bombs denoting bombing missions say otherwise. Pappy's Pram was a B-26 Marauder in the 322 Bomb Group, Medium.
The pilot & copilot would be flying the plane, not taking pictures. 5 combat photographers posing in front of a plane, that was not necessarily "theirs".
The pilot and co-pilot could be taking turns. And yeah, just a photo-op. They could have scooped the cameras off a jeep for that shot.
The painted number M2 rather gives it away...….the M class submarines were designed to carry a 12" gun, and at least one (M1?) of the three completed actually carried it and fired it from periscope depth in trials. Not sure if M2 ever had the gun, but she was ultimately fitted with a hangar, aircraft, and catapult as we see here. The third, I assume M3, became a minelayer.
Man the life boats? Woman and children first? Too much beer the night before? Nope, it doesn't float after all.
Cool photo indeed! Note that we can see the 5"/38 mounts on the starboard side even though the photo is taken from about 10 degrees on the port bow. There is a Mark 37 director on the centerline just forward of the tripod foremast (also one each side and one aft) so she can engage air targets directly ahead or crossing the bow, especially at higher elevations. This is Nevada's configuration as reconstructed after Pearl Harbor; 5" batteries on less extensively modified contemporaries could have blind spots directly forward or aft.
A-58's comment about Arizona led me to look up this photo: Her #2 turret is slightly lower than #4 all the way aft. #2 would normally be two levels higher than #4, illustrating how much of the hull structure was destroyed by the explosion, or weakened so that it collapsed under the weight of the forward turrets.