Sailors Watch Atomic Bomb Test
July 1, 1946
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
gelatin silver print
Dimensions
image: 22.3 × 17.7 cm (8 3/4 × 6 15/16 in.) sheet: 25.5 × 20.6 cm (10 1/16 × 8 1/8 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Mary and Dan Solomon
Accession Number
2018.177.401
Art Historical Context
In the stark black-and-white composition *Sailors Watch Atomic Test*, photographer Jack Rice captures a haunting moment from July 1, 1946, during the U.S. military's Operation Crossroads at Bikini Atoll. A group of sailors stands on the deck of a ship, their faces illuminated by the distant mushroom cloud of the "Able" atomic bomb detonation—the first underwater nuclear test since Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Rice's gelatin silver print, measuring about 8¾ × 6⅞ inches, freezes their mix of awe, curiosity, and unspoken peril, as over 90 target ships dotted the lagoon to gauge the bomb's destructive ...