“Capturing the Atom Bomb on Film” is a simple but fascinating multimedia presentation by The New York Times. It presents 23 images from “How to Photograph the Atomic Bomb” by Peter Kurun and offers an audio file narrated by George Yoshitake, 82, a photographer who captured atom bomb testing, and who also lost family members when such bombs were dropped on Japan. The images, with captions, are definitely interesting, but it is the audio by Yoshitake that really pulled me in.
What’s interesting about the format is that the audio is not timed to the images and can be played separately, or not at all. This might seem like lazy multimedia production, but it shows another, simple way that images and audio can be blended into an meaningful experience, in which the viewer is definitely in the driving seat.
Who Is Peter Kurun?
Have you heard of Peter Kurun? I hadn’t. But he seems worth looking into. “How to Photograph the Atomic Bomb” looks fascinating. So does “Trinity and Beyond: The Atomic Bomb Movie,” which Kurun directed. And you’ve got to love a guy who got his start working as an animator on “Star Wars.”
Kurun shared images from his book, a quote from Yoshitake and major milestones in nuclear testing in a piece he wrote for the Califorinal Literary Review.
Kurun and “Trinity and Beyond” are now on my “to check out” list, but please share if you know anything good about Kurun and his work.