Under the code name “Trinity,” the first detonation of atom bombs was conducted on July 16, 1945, in a remote location in New Mexico. Hundreds of scientists gathered for the test, as the creation of nuclear weapons was considered, at the time, a massive achievement. A month later, during the final stages of World War II, the United States unleashed atom bombs (their first and only use in history) on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, killing more than 129,000 people. Post WWII, the U.S. conducted additional tests, the first on July 1, 1946 at the Bikini Atoll lagoon in the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean.
About a dozen black-and-white photographs of the atom bomb explosion and aftermath are currently exhibited at The Gary Edwards Gallery at the AIPAD Photography Show New York. Images include the first detonation at Trinity Site; the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; and the test detonations at Bikini Atoll.
The Gary Edwards Gallery specializes in vintage photography—travel images of the 19th century, a wide range of 19th- and 20th-century images, early American hand-colored portraits, European modernism, Russian historical and art images, American vernacular surrealism and space exploration—as well as a few contemporary images.
AIPAD runs through Sunday, April 19, at the Park Avenue Armory on New York City’s Upper East Side.
I wonder what it would have looked like if digital slr’s were around at the time. I couldn’t imagine being the photographer to capture that blast. Jasmine Photography