Waiting for the Atomic Goodbye: Yucca Flats, ca. 1955

JF Ptak Science Books LLC  Post 710

This indelible image has two big residences for this blog, as follows:

Perspective 1:  Waiting to Say Goodbye Department, part 2. 

Yucca Flat is a big, wide place in the desert, about 65 wide-landscape miles northwest of Las Vegas, Nevada.  As part of the Rhode-Island-sized Nevada Test Site (NTS) it is also the most irradiated and radiation-polluted place in the country.  It was the site of some 749 nuclear tests--about 80% of all the nuclear tests carried out at NTS. And it shows, and will show, pretty much forever.

This remarkable photo of a test shot was made at Yucca in the mid-1950’s—in the dark.  Actually it was dark, pre-dawn before the viewing station of observers was completely, Georgia-O’Keefe-like illuminated by the brilliant explosion.  The people here were gathered at “News Knob”, about seven miles away from the detonation point, and all wearing dark, welder-strength goggles to prevent the blindness that would’ve occurred if they looked at the explosion without protection—best yet was to wear the goggles and have your back turned to the flash (as some in this picture did).

This is perhaps the greatest single photo demonstrating the power of nuclear explosions. You can see the devastating effects, and the giant rising mushroom clouds and all, but they’re like photos of the Grand Canyon—nothing really captures the essence of the thing.  This image makes the entire idea somewhat “habitable”, graspable, in a weird, visceral way, placing the power of the event in an imaginable context. 

Perspective 2: Where to be and Where to Look Department; Turning Around.

This is another monumental photographic image in the turning-completely-away-from-what-everyone-else-is-looking-at department, following such massive images as Ed Clark’s  iconic FDR photo.  Just as Mr. Clark pointed (see my post from last year), the picture to be made was not the newsreel shot of the President’s casket being borne to the train, but it was in the face of the accordionist, who Mr. Clark found by turning away from the scene being recorded by a hundred other photographers.  It was his picture that told the emotional story of that evident.  Just as is the case with this anonymous, undated photo from the test shot at Yucca, bringing the unimaginable back to some degree of human understanding.

Notes:

Photo from Frances Fralin, The Indelible Image, Photographs of War, 1846 to the Present, based on a show at the Corcoran Art Museum, Washington DC, 1985, and published by Harry Abrams. 

Nuclear Tests Undertaken at the

Nevada

Test Site(s)

• Operation Ranger — 1951
• Operation Buster-Jangle — 1951
• Operation Tumbler-Snapper — 1952
• Operation Upshot-Knothole — 1953
• Operation Teapot — 1955
• Project 56 — 1955
• Operation Plumbbob — 1957
• Project 57, 58, 58A — 1957–1958
• Operation Hardtack II — 1958
• Operation Nougat — 1961–1962
• Operation Plowshare — 1961–1973
• Operation Sunbeam — 1962
• Operation Dominic II — 1962–1963
• Operation Storax — 1963
• Operation Niblick — 1963–1964
• Operation Whetstone — 1964–1965
• Operation Flintlock — 1965–1966
• Operation Latchkey — 1966–1967
• Operation Crosstie — 1967–1968
• Operation Bowline — 1968–1969
• Operation Mandrel — 1969–1970
• Operation Emery — 1970
• Operation Grommet — 1971–1972

• Operation Toggle — 1972–1973
• Operation Arbor — 1973–1974
• Operation Bedrock — 1974–1975
• Operation Anvil — 1975–1976
• Operation Fulcrum — 1976–1977
• Operation Cresset — 1977–1978
• Operation Quicksilver — 1978–1979
• Operation Tinderbox — 1979–1980
• Operation Guardian — 1980–1981
• Operation Praetorian — 1981–1982
• Operation Phalanx — 1982–1983
• Operation Fusileer — 1983–1984
• Operation Grenadier — 1984–1985
• Operation Charioteer — 1985–1986
• Operation Musketeer — 1986–1987
• Operation Touchstone — 1987–1988
• Operation Cornerstone — 1988–1989
• Operation Aqueduct — 1989–1990
• Operation Sculpin — 1990–1991
• Operation Julin — 1991

Comments

[Jeff]

John, I love the "turning around" theme. Looking back, despite the biblical injunction. We have days out here that almost look like this photo in which the light seems x-ray, solarized, whether you're wearing sunglasses or not. I don't know what it is, probably something personal and psychological, because other days the clear skies and sunlight seem welcome and benign. It took me a while to get used to the periods of unrelenting blue sky. I would long for clouds and rain. However, one's clothes dry quickly.

[John Ptak]

Well, the problem with this for me is that it is a particularly difficult category to fill up without making stuff up. There is a beautiful turn-around for the celebration at Promontory Utah, turned-around from the two trains omn the next day, just one lonely guy, a loose shoe, and railroad tracks that stretch to the horizon. *That* was the real story. Weird how many western/Western photos have loose strewn shoes in the street in commonplace photos. What was going on? I like the idea of solarized. Also the idea of the illumination and giant sky. There's something certainly about the angle of the sun sunset atmosphere no trees, looking over to see the setting sun on the horizon just right over there, getting a face full of sun with nothing in between you and it. SOrt of.