The Bomb Project *Currently Featured*: Michael Light - 100 SUNS

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Date: Sun, 19 Oct 2003 12:24:31 -0400
From: The Bomb Project <[email protected]>

Currently featured on The Bomb Project: http://www.thebombproject.org

100 SUNS, by Michael Light
http://www.michaellight.net/100suns/index.html

EXHIBITION:

100 SUNS
18 October - 26 November 2003
Reception and booksigning: Saturday 18 October, 3-5 pm

Hosfelt Gallery
430 Clementina Street
(between Howard and Folsom, at Fifth Street)
San Francisco, CA 94103
http://www.hosfeltgallery.com/
http://www.hosfeltgallery.com/Exhibits/
415.495.5454

Between 1945 and 1992 the United States detonated 1,149 nuclear test
explosions. Until 1962 the tests were conducted in the atmosphere and
oceans. 106 of the 216 above-ground blasts were exploded 63 miles from
Las Vegas, Nevada. The remaining were detonated at the Enewetak or
Bikini Atolls in the Pacific Ocean. The immediate and lasting
consequences of these tests were unforeseen.

Hosfelt Gallery is pleased to be the first venue to present San
Francisco artist Michael Light's mixed media installation 100 Suns. At
the heart of this exhibition are 100 photographs culled by Michael Light
from the U.S. National Archives and the records of the Los Alamos
National Laboratory. The re-photographed images depict above-ground
tests at or shortly after the moment of explosion.

Utilizing the found photographs along with text and photographic imagery
shot by Light, the installation raises palpable issues about "weapons of
mass destruction" in the hands of any nation.
100 Suns, a book published by Alfred A. Knopf, will be released
simultaneous to the exhibition.

Hours are Tuesday through Saturday 11:00 - 5:30.
For more information, call 415.495.5454 or email [email protected]


PRESS: 2003
"100 SUNS," SEED Magazine, Fall Issue, New York

Delano, Sharon, "ON PHOTOGRAPHY: DARKNESS VISIBLE," The New Yorker,
October 6, New York

"100 SUNS," London Sunday Times Magazine, September 28, London

"100 SUNS: The Aesthetic of Horror," STERN Magazine, September 26, Hamburg

Himes, Darius, "100 SUNS," Photo-Eye Booklist, Fall 2003, Santa Fe, NM

Buckley, Richard, "Images Retrouvees: Michael Light," Vogue Hommes
International, Fall/Winter Issue, Paris

Olson, Marisa, "SUNS OF DESTRUCTION," PLANET magazine, Fall 2003.

Baker, Kenneth, "Fall Arts Preview," San Francisco Chronicle, August 31

Dyer, Geoff, "A Great Space," Modern Painters, Spring Issue, London

Keller, Bill, "The Second Nuclear Age," (cover article) New York Times
Sunday Magazine, May 4, New York


BOOK
100 Suns: 1945-1962
Michael Light
Knopf 2003
ISBN: 1400041139

Synopsis
"100 Suns" refers to J. Robert Oppenheimer's response to the first Los
Alamos test of the atomic bomb, at which he famously quoted a
description from the "Bhagavad Gita" - "a sun brighter than a thousand
suns". This book photographically documents 100 US nuclear detonations
from the 215 declared atmospheric nuclear tests conducted by the US
between July 1945 and November 1962. After that date, the tests were
conducted in the Nevada desert and on various islands in the Pacific.
The book is divided between the desert and the ocean. The photographs
have been gathered by Michael Light, who has drawn the material from the
archives at Los Alamos and from the US National Archives in Maryland.
This material was formerly classified but is now in the public domain.
It includes photographs taken by the clandestine Lookout Mountain squad
based in Hollywood, whose 250 producers, directors and cameramen
together with 30 to 40 still photographers were sworn to secrecy. Each
photograph is presented with the name of the test, its size in mega or
kilotons, the date and the location. The pictures are taken at the
moment of detonation, not during the aftermath.

From the Publisher
An awesome collection of 100 previously classified photographs of
nuclear tests conducted by the US between 1945 and 1962, with detailed
captions and chronology of the development of the nuclear bomb.

About the Author
Michael Light is a photographer living in San Francisco. He has been an
environmental lobbyist. His project Full Moon in conjunction with NASA
was exhibited worldwide in 1999 and 2000. He is currently working on an
aerial survey of the American West.

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to order in US:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1400041139/qid63811590/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/102-8497648-1906520