Tuesday, 19 March 2019

The Legacy Of A Nuclear Age,

is brought home,


 in these black and white photographs, 

 of old uranium mining towns and nuclear test sites throughout the West,

 of America,

 by Australian-American photographer Brett Leigh Dicks, the images depict scenes that once held enormous potential: first for progress, then for danger and destruction. Now they’re just empty. “Atomic Alchemy: Nuclear Landscapes Across the American West” 

 he explores how these sites scattered across Utah, Idaho, Arizona and New Mexico rose and fell along with public perception of nuclear power in the early stages of its development and post World War II, after the bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasak,

 “The United States Atomic Energy Commission predicted that, by the turn of the 21st century, one thousand reactors would be producing electricity for homes and businesses across the U.S.,” reads Dicks’ artist statement, 


the photographer says his primary area of interest “investigates the landscape and the fragile ties that it shares with social progress and historical significance,” and his previous projects include “explorations of abandoned military complexes, decommissioned prisons, walls constructed from socio-political divides and nuclear landscapes.” you can see more of his work at BrettLeighDicks.com, what a slightly eerie and desolate look the use of black and white has given the photographs.


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