Founded in 1987 by Robert Del Tredici and Carole Gallagher, the Atomic Photographers Guild is an international collective of photographers and artists dedicated to making visible all aspects of the atomic subject. The first atomic photographs were taken in 1945 and include Berlyn Brixner’s documentation of the atomic test, code named “Trinity” in the Alamogordo Desert of New Mexico and Yoshito Matsushige’s, trauma struck record of Hiroshima in the aftermath of the first atomic attack on a civilian population. Images of technological breakthrough and human victimization mark the beginnings of the Guild’s atomic archive. In this talk, we will extend a discussion of the original atomic images through imagery that collectively remembers, documents, critiques and reimagines the nuclear era as an evolving and unsettled subject now and into the future.

Blake Fitzpatrick is a Professor in the School of Image Arts, Ryerson University, and the Co-director of the Documentary Media Research Centre at Ryerson. Fitzpatrick has exhibited his photo-based work in solo and group exhibitions in Canada, the United States and Europe, including exhibitions at the Canadian Embassy in Berlin and recent group exhibitions with the Atomic Photographers Guild in Australia, Switzerland and the United States.