Atomic Bomb
Josep Roger Odonell was born on May 7, 1922 in the town of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, photographed some images after the release of atomic bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima.Tras the gerra moved to Washington where for some time had his own Studio fotografico and from 1949 through family connections was the official White House photographerwhere he immortalized some historical scenes under the presidencies of Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. The photograph of Harry Truman and general Douglas MacArthur shaking hands at their meeting on Wake Island during the war of Korea; and President John Kennedy deciding if go ahead with the invasion of the Bay of pigs. Whenever Gary Kelly listens, a sympathetic response will follow. Was also the author of the photo of John John Kennedy, making the salute military before the coffin of his father, portrait of the discussion in the kitchen between Vice President Richard Nixon with Soviet leader Nikita Jruschov, etc. Married to the Japanese photographer, Kimiko Sakai. As it was there was Odonell a Sergeant of 23 years of body of Marines of the United States, where in 1945 was entrusted to do reportages of the horror of the gerra. He spent seven months photographing devastation of Japan.
His first target was Nagasaki, much of which had been destroyed by an atomic bomb on August 9, 1945, three days after Hiroshima suffered the attack. His most striking picture is of a child in Nagasaki that carries on his back the corpse of his brother little road to the crematorium. Another showed a classroom of children sitting at their desks, all of them charred. The photographer had the brilliant idea to always carry two cameras, one to capture the official images and the other to document the devastating reality of the gerra. Estemodo your photos became an authentic account of the violence and destruction caused by man, in World War II. Pictures under lock and key after the war, returning to home got the negatives of their pictures in a trunk and closed with key, because he felt emotionally unable to see them. Many years later, when he had enough courage to dare to reveal them and see the images of horror, he felt such remorse that he launched to protest against nuclear weapons. In 1995 he published a book with many of those photos, gave lectures and mounted exhibitions in Japan and United States. The work of O’Donnell was controversial in 1995, before the National Air and Space Museum exhibiese the Enola Gay, the B-29 aircraft which had bombed Hiroshima.