atomicbomb

Bad Idea: The New Yorker’s Nuclear Option

On August 6, 1945, the U.S. detonated the world’s first wartime nuclear bomb over Hiroshima. An estimated 70,000 people died that day with another 70,000 perishing within four months from injury and radiation poisoning. On the ground, photojournalist Yoshito Matsushige miraculously survived unharmed despite living 1.7 miles from ground zero. Over the course of 10 hours, he could only bring himself to take 7 photos.

Meet The Man Who Photographed the Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima

On August 6th, 1945 Russell Gackenbach captured a historic, horrifying event on his personal camera. From the bowels of an Air Force bomber, he snapped two pictures of the first atomic bombing when a 9,000-pound uranium-235 bomb named 'Little Boy' obliterated the city of Hiroshima, Japan.

Haunting Photographs of Nagasaki Taken One Day After the Atomic Bomb Dropped

This week, 24 incredible, powerful, haunting photographs will be going up on the auction block at Bonhams in New York. These are photographs that are newly-discovered, and many of them have never been seen before as they were taken with a faulty camera and never made it in front of the public eye.

They are photographs of Nagasaki, Japan, taken by celebrated Japanese military photographer Yosuke Yamahata the day after an atomic bomb was dropped on it and Hiroshima.

Rapatronic Camera: An Atomic Blast Shot at 1/100,000,000th of a Second

This is a photo of an atomic bomb milliseconds after detonation, shot by Harold ‘Doc’ Edgerton in 1952 through his Rapatronic (Rapid Action Electronic) Camera.

The photo was shot at night through a 10 foot lens, situated 7 miles away from the blast, atop a 75 foot tower. Edgerton systematically turned on and off magnetic fields acting as the camera’s shutter, as opposed to a conventional, mechanical close.

How fast was the magnetic field shutter? 1/100,000,000th of a second.

What an Atomic Bomb Explosion Looks Like from Above and Below

On November 5, 1951, a 31 kiloton atomic bomb was dropped in the Nevada Test Site from a B-45 Tornado bomber. A camera in the air was documenting the test, and captured the video above showing what a large nuclear explosion looks like when looking down at it from above. Notice how the camera begins to shake when the shockwave of the blast reaches it.