About this product
Product Identifiers
PublisherArt Gallery of Ontario
ISBN-101908966483
ISBN-139781908966483
eBay Product ID (ePID)171740148
Product Key Features
LanguageEnglish
TopicCollections, Catalogs, Exhibitions / Group Shows, Military / Nuclear Warfare, Art, Subjects & Themes / Historical, Photography, Antiques & Collectibles, History
AuthorJohn O'brian
IllustratorYes
Dimensions
Item Height1 In.
Item Length9.9 In.
Item Weight45.9 Oz
Item Width7.4 In.
Additional Product Features
Publication Year2015
Dewey Edition23
FormatTrade Paperback
Book TitleCamera Atomica
Dewey Decimal779/.9355825119
Intended AudienceTrade
SynopsisPhotographs have played a crucial role in shaping perceptions of nuclear weapons and nuclear energy. In Camera Atomica , art historian John O'Brian explores the intimate relationship between photography and nuclear events to uncover how the camera lens has shaped public perceptions of the atomic age and its anxieties. Bringing together both vintage and contemporary photographs that have recorded and, in certain instances, provided motivation for the production of nuclear events, O'Brian travels through history -- from the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 to the triple meltdown at Fukushima Daiichi in 2011. In this vivid volume, readers will encounter more than 200 images that simultaneously document and raise questions about the contradictory roles of photography during this period. Included are Hiromitso Toyosaki and Shomei Tomatsu's photographs of hibakusha (individuals exposed to radiation from atomic bombs), David McMillan's photographs at Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, and Sandy Skoglund's darkly humorous Radioactive Cats , along with photographs by Nancy Burson, Edward Burtynsky, Carol Condé and Karl Beveridge, Kenji Higuchi, Richard Misrach, Weegee, and many others., Photographs have a crucial place in the representation of the atomic age and its anxieties. Camera Atomica examines narratives beyond the 'technological sublime' that dominates much nuclear photography, suppressing representations of the human form in favor of representations of B-52 bombers and mushroom clouds. The book proposes that the body is the site where the social environment interacts with the so-called 'atomic road': uranium mining and processing, radiation research, nuclear reactor construction and operation, and weapons testing. Cameras have both recorded and 'in certain instances' provided motivation for the production of nuclear events. Their histories and technological development are intimately intertwined: at McGill University in the early 1900s, for example, Ernest Rutherford employed photography to identify the properties of radioactive materials, winning a Nobel Prize for his research, and at Los Alamos in the mid-1940s, Julian E.Mack and Berlyn Brixner designed specialized cameras for measuring the blast yield of nuclear weapons. All photographs, including nuclear photographs, have the capability to function affectively by working on the emotions and fascinating audiences. Through a wide range of visual documentation, Camera Atomica raises questions such as: what has the role of photography been in underwriting a public image of the bomb and nuclear energy? Has the circulation of photographic images heightened or lessened anxieties, or done both at the same time? How should the different visual protocols of photography 'scientific, journalistic, documentary, touristic, and artistic 'be understood'?
Number of Pages304 pages
