Hiroshima: The Lost Photographs

As a photographer and amateur historian of WWII, I was amazed to stumble across this site on the web.

The fact that things like this still turn up is fascinating -- like the recent story of a GI's dogtag found in a NYC subway tunnel and returned to him 60 years later.

Depending on your views, Hiroshima and Nagasaki were height of barbarism on the part of the U.S., or a brilliant tactical move that saved what some historians estimate would have been a million Allied casualties and bejesus knows how many Japanese lives by ending the war without an invasion of the Japanese home islands.

Some still hotly debate this subject -- but the fact remains that the U.S. is the only country (one might add thankfully) that has exploded not one but two atomic weapons in anger.

It is hard to believe that someone could have been so careless with photographs that bare witness to this monumental moment in history.

The article by Adam Harrison Levy that accompanies some of the photographs starts off in what might be mistaken for a work of fiction. Fascinating stuff. Read it here.

The Films of Charles & Ray Eames

Images taken from Wikipedia

Thursday night, AIGA Austin hosted a viewing selection from The Films of Charles and Ray Eames at Domy Books.

The impact the Eames' had on American industrial design is obvious. The Eames' work in photography and film is lesser known - though in no way little known. The motion picture shooting style Eames honed is used, today, in modern documentary and cinematic work ranging from peoples to manufacturing destinations.

Impressed as we may be, it's safe to say the Eames' are all-american creatives, impacting the visions of countless designers, architects, photographers, and movie makers.

Robert Frank

It has been burning goal of ACP to bring Robert Frank to Austin as an Icons of Photography lecturer. Frankly, we don't know if Mr. Frank is interested in giving public presentations these days. Certainly it would be quite a feather in our cap if he accepted an invitation.

Mr. Frank's The Americans is recognized as a watershed moment in the history of photography. Several editions of this marvelous book have been printed since its original (and controversial) first release in 1958. The latest arrived last year from the German publisher Steidl. Mr. Frank himself over saw the printing and even revised the crops on some images making this edition more reflective of his vision of America then any prior publication.

The BBC has published an interesting piece about Mr. Frank and The Americans entitled The Americans in the Frame which explores the development of the book by looking at some of his contact sheets. See the article here.