Nuclear weapons
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ Doomsday Clock stands in 2026 at 85seconds minutes to midnight, “..the closest to global catastrophe it has ever been to catastrophe.” I never would have guessed that we would be in this state of nuclear fear and despair when I undertook this project more than 35 years ago.
Nuclear weapons are still one of the dominant issues of our time, long after the end of the Cold War. As we assess the past and contemplate the future, we still have very little concrete visual imagery of the huge nuclear arsenal that has so strongly influenced our lives Between 1992 and 2001 I made 35 visits to photograph more than two dozen weapons and command sites (plus hundreds of individual ICBM silos) in 16 states. With unprecedented cooperation from U.S. military authorities, I photographed warheads, submarines, bombers, missiles and associated facilities throughout the United States.
My goal was neither to directly criticize nor glorify. My objective was to reveal the tangible reality of the huge nuclear arsenal, something that exists for most of us only as a powerful concept in our collective consciousness. Psychiatrist Robert J. Lifton wrote in his 1986 essay "Examining the Real: Beyond the Nuclear `End'":
"Given the temptation of despair, our need can be simply stated: We must confront the image that haunts us, making use of whatever models we can locate. Only then can we achieve those changes in consciousness that must accompany (if not precede) changes in public policy on behalf of a human future. We must look into the abyss in order to be able to see beyond it [emphasis mine]."
Decades after beginning this project, almost every type of US weapon, submarine, missile and bomber that I photographed is still active and on the highest level of alert (launch readiness), although in greatly reduced numbers. 2025 marked the 80-year anniversary of the first atomic explosion ("Trinity"), and the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. The ending of the Cold War raised great hopes that justification for nuclear weapons would tumble along with the Berlin Wall. Such hopes have proven to be unfounded. Tensions between nuclear powers the US, Russia, and China are at a low point not seen since the Cold War, and all are developing new weapons and delivery systems. Since I began my project, India, Pakistan, and North Korea have joined the “nuclear club” with deliverable weapons (along with the US, Russia, France, the UK, China, and Israel.)
I still hope my photographs will connect viewers to the legacy and current state of these threats, and help them to confront and define their own attitudes about the nuclear past, present and future.