Flash of Light, Wall of Fire at the Briscoe Center for American History
“Flash of Light, Wall of Fire” presents a selection of photographs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, assembled by the Anti-Nuclear Photographers Movement of Japan (ANPM). The exhibit, featured in the Briscoe Center’s main gallery, provides visitors with documentary evidence collected by those who witnessed the bombs and their aftereffects firsthand. Accompanying these, a selection of color photographs by Tsuneo Enari document objects, landscapes, and personal artifacts that bear witness to the effects of the blasts and remain preserved as evidence today. RWD worked closely with the Center to create an exhibit that follows the layout of the UT published book. The grainy images of the explosions, destroyed buildings and streets, victims, survivors, and makeshift hospitals were taken by individual photographers on the ground, working alone or in survey groups. As witnesses to the actual events of the bombings and their aftermath in the minutes, hours, days, and weeks that followed, they captured evidence of the full horror of the weapons’ effects as they became increasingly visible. Disturbing in their content, these show the cruelty of atomic weaponry on human life.