Friday, 9:16am
8 April 2011

Above the clouds

New photo exhibition explores the visual fall-out of the early nuclear age

Thursday 7 March saw the opening of a new photography space, the London arm of Munich gallery Daniel Blau Ltd. Sandwiched in a narrow space, the gallery has a surprisingly generous floorplan, and its walls now play host to A-Bomb: Pictures of disaster.

Photographs of atomic bomb explosions, including tests from America and the Pacific and George R. Caron’s shots from a military plane above Hiroshima, span the early cold war period of 1945-70. Some photos are juxtaposed with fragments of written matter, often no more than a scrawled or typewritten label.

IMG_1950

The exhibition is accompanied by a 48-page tabloid (to add to Eye’s teetering pile of newsprint) that acts as a substantial exhibition catalogue – and a morbid keepsake.

IMG_1948

By the time of last night’s private view, every print bore a red dot, and the prices (which ranged from around £500 to at least £16,000) were being hurriedly covered up (using stickers or marker pens) by the gallery staff. A single private buyer had snapped up the entire collection.

IMG_1946

7 April > 7 May 2011
A-Bomb: Pictures of disaster
Daniel Blau Gallery
51 Hoxton Square
London N1 6PB UK

See also ‘Exposure’, David Thompson’s article about Michael Light’s work in Eye 51.

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