Trinity
Jack Aeby, 1945
About this work
This is the only well-exposed colour photograph of Trinity, the first detonation of a nuclear weapon, at 5:29 a.m. on July 16, 1945, in the New Mexico desert. Colour films of the test were made, but most were badly overexposed or damaged because the fireball blistered and solarized the film. The photographer, Jack Aeby, was a 21-year-old civilian at Los Alamos working in Physics Group 5 with Emilio Segrè and Owen Chamberlain. He was not an official observer; he had been invited along to take informal photographs, as he often did, and took this from Base Camp, south of the blast, with a Perfex 33 camera on Anscochrome colour movie film, at 1/100 second and f/4. "It was there so I shot it," he said. He developed the film himself that night. Los Alamos later kept the original negative "for safe keeping", and it has since been lost. The image is usually printed reversed, so that the fireball matches official pictures taken from the north. The device was an implosion-type plutonium bomb, the same design as the Fat Man bomb later dropped on Nagasaki; its yield was later measured at 18.6 kilotons.
Sources: Wikimedia Commons · Wikipedia: Jack Aeby · Wikipedia: Trinity (nuclear test)
Print facts
- Native resolution
- 2,426 × 2,790 px
- Sharp at 150 ppi up to
- 16 × 18 in
- Sizes
- Small (17 × 20 in) · $100 · 140 ppi
Medium (21 × 24 in) · $150 · 116 ppi - Price includes
- Frame and US shipping · 14–21 days · 30-day returns
FAQ
Where can I buy a framed print of Trinity?
Here. Trinity is available as a framed print in two sizes: Small (17 × 20 in) for $100 and Medium (21 × 24 in) for $150. Prices include the frame and US shipping; delivery takes 14–21 days, with 30-day returns.
What size works best for Trinity?
The file is 2,426 × 2,790 px, so Small (17 × 20 in) is the sharpest choice at 140 ppi. Medium (21 × 24 in) prints at 116 ppi: fine from a few feet away, softer up close.
Is it legal to print Trinity?
Very likely, and here is the basis. Jack Aeby took the photograph at the Manhattan Project's Trinity test, and it is published as a public-domain work of the U.S. government (Department of Energy). Aeby was a civilian, so we state the basis rather than promise it. We print it on that basis.
