11.04.13 The photograph and death

Vintage Photographs of a 1946 United States Nuclear Test

Some unique vintage photographs have surfaced of a United States nuclear weapons test conducted in 1946. Named Operation Crossroads, the experiments were conducted just off the coast of Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands and were designed to test the effects of nuclear weapons on naval ships. Two nuclear bombs were detonated, each releasing an explosion equivalent to over 23 kilotons of TNT, but because the bombs went off underwater the blinding flash that usually occurs was barely seen, meaning clear shots of the resulting 900 ft (274 m) vertical water columns were available. The eery images were taken 3.5 miles away from the island beach, which is now uninhabited due to the resulting radiation.

 Photographs will always hold a grim fascination for me, their link to death is intriguing in many ways, whether it be for nostalgia and remembrance or simply the documentation of times in history which we couldn’t have witnessed without the invention of photography. These images for example embody quite a few of these unusual interest I have because of its subject matter and also because I am witnessing something that even most the people present for cannot witness today (because they are dead).