After & Before.
Documenting the A-Bomb.
Text by Hilton Als and James Elkins.
PPP Editions, New York, 2003.
36 pp.,
10 duotone illustrations,
9x11".
From New York rare-book dealer, gallerist, and publisher Andrew Roth comes a gorgeous document with a chilling question at its core. "What might Baghdad and Manhattan look like after a nuclear assault?" The book has been smartly edited into a 'before and after' scenario. After: a set of photographs by split-second master photographer Harold Edgerton, hired in the 1950s to document nuclear test explosions. Before: a group of snapshots of Hiroshima after a U. S. made atom bomb which leveled that city effectively ended the Pacific war theater of World War II. The book is perfectly proportioned and printed on a heavy mat paper (cover illus. at right). Limited to 3000 copies.
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