My teenage years were predominantly the early 80's. That notorious era of post-punk, new wave and new romantics; of mass unemployment and mass strikes; and when Cold War reached a feverishly frozen all time low in an Europe, divided by an Iron Curtain and a Wall. The years of Reaganomics, Thatcherism and whoever was in charge in The Kremlin.
Years of mass demonstrations against the presence of cruise missiles stationed in Europe. Of a growing fear of nuclear war between the USA and the USSR - with Europe being the battle ground.
I remember reading everything I could about the destructive power of nuclear weapons. Every book, every article, every film, every documentary I could get my hands on. I had to know everything. Everything I could find about the history of the first atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the nuclear testing in the fifties and sixties, the whole nuclear arms race during the Cold War - way up to the mid eighties.
I remember reading of what nuclear disaster can do. To people, to animals, to the environment. To the earth. It stuck in my teenage mind and it left an imprint never to be erased, only to be enlarged by the '86 Chernobyl disaster.
But it isn't the only thing I remember.
Yes, what I read and saw was awful. I thought and knew it was aweful. Yet I was struck with awe. By the sheer beauty of the nuclear explosion. The scaringly majestic and awful beauty of the mushroom cloud. Its perfect shape, the utter silence in which it takes place. A mircale of nature and the triumph of science in one. And the potential doom of humankind.
That mix of awful and awe became the inspiration for my series ''The Greatest Show On Earth''', depicted here. I guess the images kinda speak for themselves. And if not, please bear in mind that one of the descriptions of Witty Art is: ''The Rock courting The Roll while dancing on a seemlingly dead volcano''....
Yes, you might get front row seats for this grand spectacle.
But are you prepared to pay the price?
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