Ward Wilson: The Myth of Hiroshima

Post by Rethinking Nuclear Weapons.

Art and Destruction: Making the Invisible Visible

 

 

 

On the anniversary of the first atmospheric nuclear test at the Nevada Test Site in 1951, I am publishing this essay in honor of the downwinders, atomic veterans, and test site workers who became ill, or lost their lives, as a result of this horrific program to detonate nuclear weapons in the open air without ever thinking or caring about who would suffer as a result. 

"I never gave it a thought." - nuclear weapons engineer Theodore B. Taylor

Art and Destruction: Making the Invisible Visible
Copyright Carole Gallagher 2013, all rights reserved.

A feature of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 
Issue 34-38, November/December 2013

This essay was selected by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists as one of the seven most important reads about nuclear weapons published in 2013.

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DOI: 10.1177/0096340213508625
http://thebulletin.sagepub.com

Published as "Nuclear photography: Making the invisible visible" by Carole Gallagher. http://the bulletin.org/2013/november/nuclear-photography-making-invisible-visible  


A documentary photographer, Gallagher spent a decade capturing the lives of those who lived downwind of the nuclear tests conducted at the Nevada Test Site, beginning on January 27, 1951. In this essay, a part of the Bulletin's special issue on art, destruction, and the Doomsday Clock, she explored whether nuclear catastrophe is beyond the reach of art.

Clicking on each page will enlarge the typeface to a readable size. (I hope.)