Anecdotal Radiations,
David Fathi

Anecdotal Radiations,
David Fathi

In our collective unconscious the atom bomb is synonymous with Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But since 1945 it has been documented that more than 2079 nuclear bombs have been detonated on Earth. Since the end of the Second World War, nuclear power countries have methodically bombed their own lands. Self mutilation in the name of self defense.

This series is about the stories surrounding nuclear armament and testing programs. Mixing archival photos, satellite imagery, packshots and road-trip photos, David Fathi  has recontextualizes a history that is sometimes strange, sometimes funny, sometimes terrifying, but often incredibly absurd. Here we have the intermingled stories of lost bombs never found, the invention of the bikini, the power struggles between colonial powers and the local populations (Algerian Tuaregs, Australian aboriginals, Pacific Micronesians,…), the worst John Wayne movie, contaminated ministers, vaporized chickens,… By documenting and illustrating these unfamiliar narratives, maybe it’s possible to rethink our reality and the dissonance between the world we have created and the world we believe we live in.