New York Nightmare: Air-burst Atomic Bombs Make Cities in the Northeast Obsolete...
On loan to The Met
This work of art is currently on loan to the museum.The sheer impossibility of photographing the future did not stop picture editors from fabricating speculative representations of things to come. In the decades following the detonation of “Little Boy” at Hiroshima, Japan, the era’s technological optimism was shadowed by a profound fear of nuclear devastation. This photo illustration from the archives of London’s Daily Herald gives striking visual form to the pervasive doomsday anxiety of the atomic age.
Artwork Details
- Title: New York Nightmare: Air-burst Atomic Bombs Make Cities in the Northeast Obsolete...
- Artist: John Carlton (American, active 1940s–50s)
- Date: 1949
- Medium: Gelatin silver print
- Dimensions: Image: 22.8 x 18 cm (9 x 7 1/16 in.)
Frame: 50.8 x 40.6 cm (20 x 16 in.) - Classification: Photographs
- Credit Line: The Daily Herald Collection at the National Media Museum, Bradford, United Kingdom
- Curatorial Department: Photographs
Content Notice
The Metropolitan Museum of Art presents over 5,000 years of art from around the world, and our online collection reflects ongoing work conducted over the course of our more than 150-year history. You may encounter objects or images that may be inappropriate for some viewers or information that may be outdated.