Soft Pyramid[s]

Pentax 67 head.

Pentax 67 head. As a Pentax 67 shooter, I am a sucker for whoever decided to make a human-sized hat in the shape of one.

[To the best of my internet-sleuthing abilities, it seems all I can find out about the origin of these images is that Kiyoshimachine on Flickr is the maker of these images.]

Salvador Dali with prism, shot by Philippe Halsman

Ionization glow surrounds the cooling fireball of the Diablo shot, fired in Yucca Flat at 4:30 a.m. Monday, July 15, 1957. (National Nuclear Security Administration / Nevada Site Office)

I wish these were abstract paintings, but they’re not. If you find yourself seduced by these photos, but disturbed by them, I recommend you support the anti-nuclear agenda of Greenpeace. Or if you feel at odds with their other causes, check out the amazing group International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War.

The tail section of a U.S. Navy Blimp is shown with the Stokes cloud in background at the Nevada test Site on August 7, 1957. The blimp was in temporary free flight in excess of five miles from ground zero when it was collapsed by the shock wave from the blast. The airship was unmanned and was used in a military effects experiment. (National Nuclear Security Administration / Nevada Site Office)

“Rope tricks” are seen in this image of a nuclear explosion taken less than one millisecond after detonation. During operation Tumbler-Snapper in 1952, this nuclear test device was suspended 300 feet above the Nevada desert floor, and anchored by mooring cables. As the ball of plasma expanded, the radiating energy superheated and vaporized the cables just ahead of the fireball, resulting in the “spike” effects. (U.S. Department of Defense)

All my mind can register is just: monsters. Unreal, beautiful, horrible monsters.

Emmet Gowin
Sedan Crater, Area 10, Northern end of Yucca Flat looking South, Nevada Test Site, 1996.
Toned Gelatin Silver Print
From the series: Changing the Earth

If I can add some non-art related facts here: Sedan Crater was formed when a 100 kiloton explosive buried under 635 feet of desert alluvium was fired at the NTS on July 6, 1962, displacing 12 million tons of earth. The crater is 320 feet deep and 1,280 feet in diameter. Beautiful photograph, like the surface of the moon but very scary stuff when it comes down to it.

Emmet Gowin
Subsidence Craters, Looking East from Area 8, Nevada Test Site, 1996 
Toned Gelatin Silver Print
From the series: Changing the Earth

photo by Harold Edgerton

Atomic bomb detonation- Automatic camera situated 7 miles from blast site with 10 foot lens. Shutter speed equaled 1/100,000,000 of-a-second exposure.

Perhaps the most haunting and poetic of the bomb-related images I am posting today. A universe within the universe. Born for a moment, only to destroy.

The mushroom cloud of the “Easy” atomic bomb test rises above the Nevada Test Site on Nov. 5, 1951. Energy levels the equivalent of over 31 thousand tons of TNT were discharged by the bomb.

Loomis Dean
Nevada Ghosts: Rare Photos From an A-Bomb Test

Not originally published in LIFE. Vehicles lines up far from ground ground zero before a nuclear weapon test, Nevada, 1955.

Loomis Dean
Nevada Ghosts: Rare Photos From an A-Bomb Test

Loomis Dean
Nevada Ghosts: Rare Photos From an A-Bomb Test

Not originally published in LIFE:
“Remains of a house [built for the test more than a mile from ground zero] after an atomic bomb test, Nevada, 1955.”