Photos From French Nuclear Test, 1970
“These are four scanned pictures of hardcopies I possess of the French nuclear test codenamed Licorne, which was fired on August 24, 1970 . The French army had these pictures taken on site. The pictures were readily available at the time at Tahiti and Moruroa military base, and mine have been quite degraded. I scanned them and tried to restore them.”
bronwyn wrote:
Amazing photographs, and strangely beautiful for something so terrible. I can’t stop looking at them.
Posted on 16-Nov-07 at 4:02 pm | Permalink
ryan wrote:
Wow.These are just stunning images. It shows just the power of our most powerful threat to humanity.
Posted on 16-Nov-07 at 5:24 pm | Permalink
erin wrote:
whoa! love the pics. any chance you can post some higher res copies?
Posted on 16-Nov-07 at 5:32 pm | Permalink
mludd wrote:
Absolutely amazing, do you have any higher resolution versions of these?
Posted on 16-Nov-07 at 6:20 pm | Permalink
Kinsbane wrote:
Any there any high-resolution versions, maybe for print?
Posted on 16-Nov-07 at 6:29 pm | Permalink
EG wrote:
Uh, a little too much “restoration”…
Posted on 16-Nov-07 at 6:53 pm | Permalink
Monte L Schlarman wrote:
brings back me memories, as i was at the Nevada test site, for i6 above ground test they are also very beautiful. I some time think that they should open the test site to the public, the rentry tunnels would educate people about atomic Bombs, after seeing what they do, and don’t do. Then the world could laugh at Bush’s bunker buster bomb. However a Dirty bomb, that is made to strew alph radiationerry is verry dangerious, as alph radiation for all purposie last for ever, or 5o,ooo years half life. Don’t try to compare this with Bush bomb witch i can honestly say was a big ignorant bad Joke
Posted on 16-Nov-07 at 7:18 pm | Permalink
Ridge wrote:
Wow, those are beautiful! Ive never seen such awe inspiring photos of an atomic blast before….
Posted on 16-Nov-07 at 8:04 pm | Permalink
Glenn wrote:
Is there any possibility of getting higher resolution of these? Like 1280×1024 or so? They would make a good wallpaper.
Posted on 16-Nov-07 at 8:17 pm | Permalink
ÓbsolutÊly wrote:
beautiful
Castle Bravo is however my favorite, followed by the largest atmospheric nuke test ever by Russia.
Oh and thanks Russia for scaling that test down 50%, lol. Now we all have a few molecules of PL238
Posted on 16-Nov-07 at 8:54 pm | Permalink
David wrote:
Wow, these are some amazing photos. The mushroom clouds from nuclear testing are beautiful, but nuclear weapons should be banned and testing should stop. It’s crazy how such amazing art can come from such a dangerous invention.
Posted on 16-Nov-07 at 8:57 pm | Permalink
Next Test wrote:
Next test location: Los Angeles. Jack Bauer is on it!
Posted on 16-Nov-07 at 10:21 pm | Permalink
vern wrote:
Do you have high resolution versions of these images? They are fantastic!
Posted on 16-Nov-07 at 10:41 pm | Permalink
Kimberly wrote:
These are unbelievable images. There’s something about film that captures more than the digital media in my opinion… almost an essence of the time and place.
Posted on 17-Nov-07 at 12:00 am | Permalink
B wrote:
Next up: Whales with tumours!
Posted on 17-Nov-07 at 12:16 am | Permalink
Jordan wrote:
Monte L Schlarman, I seriously doubt that you were present at the testing of a new donut flavor at Tim Horton’s, let alone a nuclear testing. You pathetic attempt to tie this to Bush amuses me. Perhaps you hate him because they two of you share the same grasp of the English language.
Posted on 17-Nov-07 at 12:28 am | Permalink
iscar0t wrote:
crazy man
like everyone said
crazyhow somethingso destructive can be so beautiful
Posted on 17-Nov-07 at 12:30 am | Permalink
Nachum wrote:
HR pics available @ Flicker…
Posted on 17-Nov-07 at 2:16 am | Permalink
Guy in PDX wrote:
Man I would love to do that in HDR!
I’ll just need-
5 atom bombs
15 cameras w/ 3 exposure settings
and it will take all day!
Posted on 17-Nov-07 at 2:30 am | Permalink
Kyrre Nygård wrote:
Is it true that nuclear explosions cause time on earth to fast forward? Hence this rapid global warming (e.g. passing of a mini ice age)
Posted on 17-Nov-07 at 2:59 am | Permalink
Hmmm wrote:
LIAR! Those are broccoli and popcorn. :l no nooclear test.
Now a serious comment, great photos, AWESOME quality, thanks for showing the may-seem-to-be-awful-but-really-are beautiful-pictures-if-we-forget-the fact-that’d-kill-a-lotta-people. :l
Posted on 17-Nov-07 at 4:18 am | Permalink
Syd wrote:
the highres versions are on flickr, click the link.
Posted on 17-Nov-07 at 4:43 am | Permalink
robert wrote:
The people of French Polynesia do not think that it is such a beautiful thing for France to be testing these things right in their backyard. How would people of the USA like it if we were testing nukes 100 miles off the coast of Florida? Nuclear weapons should not be developed, tested, or deployed AT ALL.
Ok, so we know they work. Whoopee. IF our scientists came up with a doomsday plague, would we need to test that, too?
Posted on 17-Nov-07 at 5:00 am | Permalink
surfvivor wrote:
It is strange to me that humans have spent the time making such a…thing
Posted on 17-Nov-07 at 5:09 am | Permalink
Geoff wrote:
Fantastic. More countries should embark on nuclear weapons testing so we can get more great photos.
Posted on 17-Nov-07 at 7:25 am | Permalink
gordon wrote:
these are amazing, it is the mixture of 70s film and photoshop that makes them so gorgeous. do you know if any film still exists?
Posted on 17-Nov-07 at 8:45 am | Permalink
willgetin wrote:
The top photo can be found here…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7969902@N07/510672745/
Posted on 17-Nov-07 at 8:47 am | Permalink
willgetin wrote:
Actually, here is all 4…
http://flickr.com/photos/7969902@N07/sets/72157600253743362/
Posted on 17-Nov-07 at 8:51 am | Permalink
lookingglass wrote:
Is that lightning at the bottom of the last pic?
Posted on 17-Nov-07 at 9:31 am | Permalink
Baddabing wrote:
Damn. I can’t wait to wake up one morning to that in the horizon. When it comes I hope I live long enough to see it.
Posted on 17-Nov-07 at 2:17 pm | Permalink