Description
OD Photo Prize 2024 | Shortlisted Artist
Selected by our International Jury from over 1200 submissions
Beihua Guo [1998, China] holds a BA in Studio Art and Environmental Analysis from Pitzer College in Claremont, California (Tongva land), and is currently pursuing an MFA in Photography, Video, and Imaging at the University of Arizona in Tucson (O’odham and Yaqui land). His lens-based and installation work explores the fragile relationship between humanity and nature, excavating the unseen and the unheard beneath the landscapes.
Image Description | Romeo. 11 Mt. Operation Castle. Yurochi, Bikini Atoll. March 26, 1954, 18:30:00.4 MHT.
Artist Statement | “The Atomic Weapons Requirements Study for 1959, produced by the United States Strategic Air Command (SAC) in 1956 and published by the National Security Archive at George Washington University in 2015, is the most comprehensive record of Cold War nuclear targets ever declassified. Spanning over 800 pages, this document lists the coordinates of 3,400 Designated Ground Zeros in urban-industrial areas and more than 1,100 airfields within the Soviet Union, China, and Eastern Europe. I photographed the nuclear targets in China identified by the SAC, collected photos of US nuclear tests, and then created radioactive uranotypes using the uranium printing process. Ports, railroads, and factories constructed by colonists, airports used by the Flying Tigers during WWII, and Chinese industrial sites were all designated as nuclear targets in 1956. Today, the abandoned Shougang Steel Mill in Beijing has been revitalized as the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics Big Air venue. Warehouses, airport hangars, and fuel tanks along Huangpu River now serve as art galleries and museums in Shanghai. The mines in Fushun and Dayu have been repurposed into recreational areas and educational sites. While many former urban-industrial sites have been demolished and transformed into residential neighborhoods and public spaces, others remain operational to this day.” — Beihua Guo
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