R.A.F. Raid on Hamburg

British Air Ministry

1943 · Gelatin silver print · Photographs

A typed label on the verso of this official photograph describes in detail the mission over Hamburg on the night of January 30, 1943, that it depicts. The target of the mission was a U-boat construction center at the shipbuilding yards in Hamburg, and two Lancaster planes-one bearing the camera used to make this photograph-dropped two major bombs and "tens of thousands of incendiaries" in thirty minutes. In the photograph, like many in its genre, the camera registered the spectacle of air power in wartime as an abstract pattern of bright white lines and squiggles over an otherwise darkened city. The speed of technologically sophisticated cameras allowed them to capture events for later analysis by such agencies as the British Air Ministry but often created compositions that seem inadvertently beautiful.

Artist

British Air Ministry

Date

1943

Medium

Gelatin silver print

Department

Photographs

Credit line

Purchase, Jennifer and Joseph Duke Gift, 1999