Visualizing the Nuclear: Visibility and Invisibility in U.S. Photographic Representations from the Pacific

This article examines the visual culture of U.S. nuclear imperialism in the Pacific through an analysis of several widely circulated photographs: two images of atomic testing at Bikini Atoll published in Life magazine in 1946, and a photograph of the nuclear-powered USS Enterprise produced during Operation Sea Orbit in 1964. Drawing on theories of coloniality, whiteness, and militourism, this article traces the shift from the hypervisibility of the atomic explosion to the increasing invisibility of nuclear power within Cold War visual discourse. Situating these images within the broader history of U.S. militarized image-making in the Pacific, this article argues that popular publications normalized and aestheticized nuclear technologies while obscuring histories of colonial violence and ongoing impacts on Indigenous Pacific communities. Through concepts such as the atomic sublime and the atomic aesthetic, this article demonstrates the ways photography has functioned as a powerful tool in sustaining U.S. military-imperial power and Pacific colonial imaginaries amongst a hegemonic viewership.