The Nevada Test Site

Description

A photographic study of the land that served as the main testing site for American nuclear devices for four decades More nuclear bombs have been detonated in America than in any other country in the world. Between 1951 and 1992, the Nevada National Security Test Site was the primary location for these activities, withstanding more than a thousan

Emmet Gowin is emeritus professor of photography at Princeton University. His many books include Emmet Gowin and Mariposas Nocturnas (Princeton). His photographs are in collections around the world, including at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Morgan Library and Museum, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Tokyo Museum of Art. Robert Adams is one of the most esteemed American photographers working today. His work has been published in more than thirty books.

"Gowin's richly saturated prints intensify the contrast of light and shadow, accentuating the land's man-made and natural features. The artificial geometry of roads and waste-storage pads stands out from the organic undulations and gradient washes of the desert, although the two blend together in sites of intensive activity, where human drivers left behind their unruly tracks. . . . His pictures are proof that even humanity's vilest weapons can't entirely void a place of its dignity. As the world warms, the sea rises, the forests burn, and our fellow-creatures suffer, there will still be beauty. Beauty to take comfort in. Beauty to mourn."---Max Norman, New Yorker "The only photographer to have been granted official and sustained access to [The Nevada Test Site], Gowin revisits his original negatives from 1996 and 1997 in his new book. The Nevada Test Site evinces the chilling impact of nuclear weapons on the natural world, reminding us too of the deadly threat they continue to pose to humanity at large."---Madeleine Pollard, Financial Times