The kaleidoscopic patterns in this artwork draw the eye towards its glowing centre. Despite its dreamy, hypnotic effect, however, the work has its roots in the terrifying reality of a nuclear bomb.
Its creator, artist James Stanford, grew up in Las Vegas, Nevada, near where more than 200 above-ground nuclear tests took place in the 1950s and 1960s. His new interpretive photography series, Atomic, draws from both the nuclear landscape of his childhood and his time as a technical illustrator for the US Atomic Energy Commission.
The main image is Nuke Image Circle, 2024. Below, Stanford is shown beside Spectre Fission.
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鈥淲ith the Atomic series, I was trying to show both the spectacle and the horror of the atomic bomb,鈥� he says. A new book, , brings together 21 of these pieces, while four feature in a new exhibition at the .
Mushroom clouds from bomb tests 鈥渆nhanced the amazing sunsets and purple mountains of the Mojave Desert鈥� as he grew up, Stanford writes in the book. Three times, atomic tests cracked the windows of his house when he was a child.
The image above is Stanford鈥檚聽Nuclear Color, 2024.
