Witnesses to Radioactive Contamination 177
historical events, radioactive radiation has a disruptive effect in that it overwrites the representational information to the point of unrecognizability.
When referential and indexical pictorial elements are depicted simultaneously, a hybrid image results from a “mixed form of radiation.” The light that
reaches the film through the lens, which is responsible for reproducing the
motif, is joined by the radioactive radiation that has found its way into the
camera’s casing. The radioactive radiation depicts itself and is not intended by
the photographer. Only in the action of observation does it become the indicator of contamination and interpretable as a potential danger. The section
“Radiation of August 6, 1945” cites the photographer Yoshito Matsushige,
whose nuclear reality in Hiroshima 13 is complemented in the section
“Radiation of April 26, 1986” by the photographs of Igor Kostin, 14 in which
the radioactive threat of the Chernobyl accident becomes visible.
Radioactive radiation is revealed more directly in the camera-less photographic technique of autoradiography. In this method, the photographer
brings the radioactive object in direct contact with the radiation-sensitive
emulsion of the photographic negative, which depicts itself on the film
without light. This was originally a practice from scientific photography to
document radioactive materials and is also used as a standard method for
showing macromolecules that have been radioactively marked. In the sections “Radiation of July 16, 1945” and “Radiation of March 11, 2011,” two
photographers are mentioned who have adopted this process in order to document radioactivity: the photojournalist Fritz Goro and the artist Shimpei
Takeda. Whereas the intention of the former is to illustrate the radioactive
effects of the first plutonium bomb in Life magazine, the artistic practice of
the latter is a search for clues about the Fukushima accident.
In all four examples, the energy unleashed leaves behind its traces. At the
time they are taken, the photographs become silent witnesses of contamination. The images of nuclear tests and sites of catastrophes such as Hiroshima,
Chernobyl, New Mexico (Trinity test), and Fukushima should be understood together with the photographers in question as double testimonies.
Radiation of August 6, 1945 (Yoshito Matsushige)
The photographs of Yoshito Matsushige (1913–2005) were taken a few hours
after the atomic bomb exploded in Hiroshima. The photographer was located
around three kilometers from the hypocenter and took just five pictures. 15
Matsushige was working as a reporter for the daily newspaper Chugoku Shinbun
in the Hiroshima region and also took photographs for the regional information service of the general staff of the ground forces. His work was extremely
regulated; for example, he was not permitted to capture or show corpses or
the severely injured.
Immediately after the explosion, he headed toward the military offices and had
with him his 6 × 6 cm Mamiya camera with a total of 24 exposures (two rolls of
black-and-white film, 100 ASA). On his way there, he tried to photograph the
historical events, radioactive radiation has a disruptive effect in that it overwrites the representational information to the point of unrecognizability.
When referential and indexical pictorial elements are depicted simultaneously, a hybrid image results from a “mixed form of radiation.” The light that
reaches the film through the lens, which is responsible for reproducing the
motif, is joined by the radioactive radiation that has found its way into the
camera’s casing. The radioactive radiation depicts itself and is not intended by
the photographer. Only in the action of observation does it become the indicator of contamination and interpretable as a potential danger. The section
“Radiation of August 6, 1945” cites the photographer Yoshito Matsushige,
whose nuclear reality in Hiroshima 13 is complemented in the section
“Radiation of April 26, 1986” by the photographs of Igor Kostin, 14 in which
the radioactive threat of the Chernobyl accident becomes visible.
Radioactive radiation is revealed more directly in the camera-less photographic technique of autoradiography. In this method, the photographer
brings the radioactive object in direct contact with the radiation-sensitive
emulsion of the photographic negative, which depicts itself on the film
without light. This was originally a practice from scientific photography to
document radioactive materials and is also used as a standard method for
showing macromolecules that have been radioactively marked. In the sections “Radiation of July 16, 1945” and “Radiation of March 11, 2011,” two
photographers are mentioned who have adopted this process in order to document radioactivity: the photojournalist Fritz Goro and the artist Shimpei
Takeda. Whereas the intention of the former is to illustrate the radioactive
effects of the first plutonium bomb in Life magazine, the artistic practice of
the latter is a search for clues about the Fukushima accident.
In all four examples, the energy unleashed leaves behind its traces. At the
time they are taken, the photographs become silent witnesses of contamination. The images of nuclear tests and sites of catastrophes such as Hiroshima,
Chernobyl, New Mexico (Trinity test), and Fukushima should be understood together with the photographers in question as double testimonies.
Radiation of August 6, 1945 (Yoshito Matsushige)
The photographs of Yoshito Matsushige (1913–2005) were taken a few hours
after the atomic bomb exploded in Hiroshima. The photographer was located
around three kilometers from the hypocenter and took just five pictures. 15
Matsushige was working as a reporter for the daily newspaper Chugoku Shinbun
in the Hiroshima region and also took photographs for the regional information service of the general staff of the ground forces. His work was extremely
regulated; for example, he was not permitted to capture or show corpses or
the severely injured.
Immediately after the explosion, he headed toward the military offices and had
with him his 6 × 6 cm Mamiya camera with a total of 24 exposures (two rolls of
black-and-white film, 100 ASA). On his way there, he tried to photograph the