Sale 2489 - Artists & Amateurs: Photographs & Photobooks, October 18, 2018

389 c   (ATOMIC BOMBS—TRINITY NUCLEAR TEST) A graphic and unfathomable series with 8 photographs documenting the first detonation of a nuclear weapon on this planet, as developed by the Los Alamos Laboratory under the Manhattan Project. With split-second views of the explosion, from 0.025 to 20 seconds after detonation, and one aerial view showing the spot where the bomb was dropped (28 hours later), with a 100m (328 ft.) wide hole in the ground, and a vast black shadow spanning approximately 500m (1640 ft.) in diameter. Silver prints, the images measuring approximately 6 1 / 2 x9 inches (16.5x22.9 cm.), the sheets slightly larger, each with caption and/or technical information in the negative, and with the Official Los Alamos Project and D. H. Wiseman, the photographer’s (?), hand stamps on verso. 1945 [2,000/3,000] 389 390 c   (NUCLEAR AGE—SL-1 REACTOR DISASTER) A U.S. Atomic Energy Commission album with 40 photographs documenting the after­ math and radioactive cleanup of the disastrous reactor meltdown at SL-1, Idaho Falls. Comprising images of the SL-1 interior and exterior prior to the accident; shots of the health physicist response team clad in gas masks and protective suits surveying the area, vehicles, and infrastructure with radiation detectors; barren views of the roadblocked Highway 20 and the surrounding Great Basin Desert in which all radioactive materials were eventually buried; scenes of the temporary control station, storage for contaminated evidence, and a decontamination chamber for those exposed to radiation. Silver (32) and chromogenic dye coupler prints (8), the images measuring 8x10 inches (20.3x25.4 cm.), each with a National Reactor Testing Station inventory number and “not reviewed for publication” hand stamps, on verso. 4to, black leatherette; 3-ring binding. 1961 [1,400/1,800] 390