How To Photograph an Atomic Bomb [Hardcover]

Peter Kuran (Author, Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 6, 2007

The Hardcover version of How To Photograph an Atomic Bomb is almost exhausted. As soon as these copies are gone, the Hard cover edition will officially be out of print. However, the soft cover edition will still be available. How To Photograph an Atomic Bomb is a visually compelling documentation combining awe-inspiring photography and fascinating technical detail about the stories and techniques behind the photography of the bomb. Author Peter Kuran's engrossing and powerful arrangement of these complex photographic techniques along with the astonishing photographs themselves creates an intriguing intersection at which the viewpoint of the casual observer becomes one of insightful witness. The culmination of over ten years of research, this book reveals newly declassified and previously secret photographs from US atomic weapons tests conducted between 1945 and 1963.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Documentary filmmaker Kuran challenges the mushroom cloud as the prevailing image of a nuclear explosion in this fascinating, if uneven new photographic compilation. Accumulated over the course of a decade, Kuran's collection ranges from straightforward bomb blueprints to jarring juxtapositions of bombs exploding against palm trees, taken during the 1946 landmark Operation Crossroads at the Bikini Atoll. All of his images predate 1963—the year Kennedy signed the Limited Test Treaty Ban—capturing a slice of life from a politically tense era. Kuran chooses to illustrate only a half-dozen of the more than 300 atmospheric nuclear tests conducted by the U.S. government: the most graphic shots are serial frames of houses being crushed, their roofs being blown off and structures crumbling. There are also oddly clinical portraits of swaddled photographers clutching oxygen masks, gingerly retrieving contaminated cameras after an explosion. Also of note are the vivid, full-color images of specific bombs, which stand in contrast to the telegraphic prose that accompanies them. Kuran's narrative skills may be lacking, but his sense of visual storytelling is right on target. (Oct. 1)
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Review

Documentary filmmaker Kuran challenges the mushroom cloud as the prevailing image of a nuclear explosion in this fascinating, if uneven new photographic compilation. Accumulated over the course of a decade, Kuran's collection ranges from straightforward bomb blueprints to jarring juxtapositions of bombs exploding against palm trees, taken during the 1946 landmark Operation Crossroads at the Bikini Atoll. All of his images predate 1963 the year Kennedy signed the Limited Test Treaty Ban capturing a slice of life from a politically tense era. Kuran chooses to illustrate only a half-dozen of the more than 300 atmospheric nuclear tests conducted by the U.S. government: the most graphic shots are serial frames of houses being crushed, their roofs being blown off and structures crumbling. There are also oddly clinical portraits of swaddled photographers clutching oxygen masks, gingerly retrieving contaminated cameras after an explosion. Also of note are the vivid, full-color images of specific bombs, which stand in contrast to the telegraphic prose that accompanies them. Kuran's narrative skills may be lacking, but his sense of visual storytelling is right on target. --Publishers Weekly

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 142 pages
• Publisher: vce.com; 1st edition (August 6, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1889054119
• ISBN-13: 978-1889054117
• Product Dimensions: 11.3 x 8.7 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #978,872 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing effects -- from real life, January 24, 2008

By 

Robert C. Ross (New Jersey) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: How To Photograph an Atomic Bomb (Hardcover)

It's amazing the changes that have occurred in my lifetime, everything from jet planes to genetic manipulation, moon rockets to personal computers, dial telephones to the Internet. For me, the most amazing was the development of atomic bombs and their progeny.

Peter Kuran apparently feels the same amazement. Starting with his work as Animator on the original "Star Wars" in 1976 and thereafter on over 300 theatrical motion pictures, he has been fascinated with the Bomb and its photography. As he writes: "It wasn't until 1945 that the sciences of photography would cross paths with the sciences of the atom. For the next 17 years, still and motion picture photography would combine with atomic physics to create imagery the world may never witness again first hand."

In 1995 Kuran produced and directed "Trinity and Beyond (The Atomic Bomb Movie)," a documentary of the history of nuclear weapons development and testing. During his work on that documentary, he met many of the photographers, and in 1999 he directed another documentary "The Atomic Filmmakers: Behind the Scenes". He has now written this book containing documents and photographs relating to the history of US atomic weapons tests between 1945 and 1962. He also presents information about the photographers and their techniques and equipment.

The book contains amazing photographs from some of the 300 atmospheric tests conducted by the US during that period. Kuran writes that there were relatively few images and film clips of Trinity, the first test explosion, and the combat use of atomic bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The government was intent on perfecting nuclear bombs, and "photography was the best way of being able to capture data".

For the 21-kiloton, Crossroads Baker detonation near Bikini Atoll on July 24, 1946, special 100-foot towers were erected on the island for photographers to get unobstructed views. One black-and-white image captured on an 8-by-10-inch negative shows a ship standing on end after the device, positioned 95 feet beneath seawater, erupted in a plume that raised 1 million tons of water in a column 300 yards wide. A cloud could be seen rising 6,000 feet up.

A year later, atomic bomb photography was assigned to the Air Force's 4881st Motion Picture Squadron. The squadron, which later was redesignated as the 1352nd Photographic Squadron, operated out of a secret production facility in Hollywood, California, known as Lookout Mountain Studios. The squadron photographed tests in the South Pacific, and at the Nevada Test Site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Edgerton, Germeshausen and Grier devised ultra-high-speed strobe techniques for producing split-second images of nuclear fireballs erupting, which allowed scientists to tailor their design of bombs.

I cannot adequately describe these photographs. You really have to see them to understand their visual impact. But it is easy to describe the unsettling familiarity people displayed while watching and photographing these tests. Many of the photographs are visual proof; here George Yoshitake puts the casual approach into words:

"One afternoon I was at Lookout Mountain right here in Hollywood, and I got a call from a Woody Mark. He said `George, I need you out here tomorrow for a special test.' I got there that night and he said, `Tomorrow morning you're going to go out with five other guys and you're going to be standing at ground zero.' I said, `Ground zero?' He said. `Yeah, but the bomb's gonna go off 10,000 feet above you.' I said, `Well, what kind of protective gear am I going to have?' He said `None.'

"I remember I had a baseball hat, so I wore that just in case. He gave me a still camera, and two motion picture cameras. These were 35mm Eyemos. I set up the two Eyemos, and had little trip wires that I could trip with my foot starting about 5 seconds before the blast. And the still camera, I also had a trip wire so that I could trip it. I could get one exposure only. The five other guys were scientists and they volunteered to be there. I wasn't a volunteer. I didn't find out until I got there."

These are extraordinary images for the general reader. I understand why the tests, the photographers and the equipment so captured Peter Kuran's imagination.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good technical start on a fascinating topic., November 25, 2007

By 

T. Skloss (Milwaukee) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: How To Photograph an Atomic Bomb (Hardcover)

This book was a great addition to my library on extreme technology. As an amateur photographer and avid reader on the history of nuclear weapons development, I highly recommend this book. Have ever wondered how they took many of the pictures of bombs exploding? This book delivers.

I would give it 5 stars, but the technical detail on the photographic techniques could have been more in depth. I am not sure if it is because the documentation still remains classified or if it was simply lost to the sands of time.

This book is the print version of the Peter Kuran video "Hollywood's Top Secret Film Studio". Not much more is revealed in the book, but the photos are the best quality I have seen reprinted from the national archives.

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars How To Photograph an A-Bomb?, October 10, 2009

By 

Cal Teckie "scientific artist" (New York, NY, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How To Photograph an Atomic Bomb (Hardcover)

Heavy on photos, very sparse on text, context, and history. Unfortunately, no real insight into how the A-bomb was photographed (as the title suggests). Bad: Incorrect dates are quoted for both Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. Good: colorful, expensive photos of the restored A-bomb footage. Suggestion: also purchase a scholarly volume which relates the interesting and important story of the creation and use of the Bomb (e.g., The Making of the Atom Bomb by Richard Rhodes), from the German physicists involved to the decision to drop the bomb in World War II. The Making of the Atomic Bomb