President John F. Kennedy Atmoic Bomb Shelter and Command Post; Peanut Island, FL.
President John F. Kennedy Atmoic Bomb Shelter and Command Post; Peanut Island, FL.
Declassified Department of State Report. President John F. Kennedy Atmoic Bomb Shelter and Command Post; Peanut Island, FL.
Declassified Department of State Report. President John F. Kennedy Atmoic Bomb Shelter and Command Post; Peanut Island, FL.
Private Shelter; Dallas, TX
Private Shelter; Dallas, TX
Dallas Civil Defense Emergency Operations Center; Dallas, TX. Jacksonville Civil Defense Emergency Operations CEnter; Jacksonville, FL.
Dallas Civil Defense Emergency Operations Center; Dallas, TX. Jacksonville Civil Defense Emergency Operations CEnter; Jacksonville, FL.
Declassified CIA Information Report. President John F. Kennedy Atmoic Bomb Shelter and Command Post; Peanut Island, FL.
Declassified CIA Information Report. President John F. Kennedy Atmoic Bomb Shelter and Command Post; Peanut Island, FL.
Dallas Civil Defense Emergency Operations Center; Dallas, TX. President John F. Kennedy Atmoic Bomb Shelter and Command Post; Peanut Island, FL.
Dallas Civil Defense Emergency Operations Center; Dallas, TX. President John F. Kennedy Atmoic Bomb Shelter and Command Post; Peanut Island, FL.
Private Shelter; Dallas, TX.
Private Shelter; Dallas, TX.
AT&T Underground Coaxial Cable Station; Ft. Pierce, FL.
AT&T Underground Coaxial Cable Station; Ft. Pierce, FL.
Private Shelter; Dallas, TX.
Private Shelter; Dallas, TX.
Dallas Civil Defense Emergency Operations Center; Dallas, TX. Graph from ‘Theoretical Consquences of a Hypothetical Nuclear Bombing of the Dallas-Ft. Worth Area, 1963.’
Dallas Civil Defense Emergency Operations Center; Dallas, TX. Graph from ‘Theoretical Consquences of a Hypothetical Nuclear Bombing of the Dallas-Ft. Worth Area, 1963.’
AT&T Underground Coaxial Cable Station; Ft. Pierce, FL.
AT&T Underground Coaxial Cable Station; Ft. Pierce, FL.
Jacksonville Civil Defense Emergency Operations Center; Jacksonville, FL.
Jacksonville Civil Defense Emergency Operations Center; Jacksonville, FL.
Dallas Civil Defense Emergency Operations Center; Dallas, TX.
Dallas Civil Defense Emergency Operations Center; Dallas, TX.
Dallas Civil Defense Emergency Operations Center; Dallas, TX.
Dallas Civil Defense Emergency Operations Center; Dallas, TX.
AT&T Underground Coaxial Cable Station; Ft. Pierce, FL.
AT&T Underground Coaxial Cable Station; Ft. Pierce, FL.
Dallas Civil Defense Emergency Operations Center; Dallas, TX. Graph from ‘Theoretical Consquences of a Hypothetical Nuclear Bombing of the Dallas-Ft. Worth Area, 1963.’
Dallas Civil Defense Emergency Operations Center; Dallas, TX. Graph from ‘Theoretical Consquences of a Hypothetical Nuclear Bombing of the Dallas-Ft. Worth Area, 1963.’
For her ongoing series Fallout, Jeanine Michna-Bales has been photographing Cold-War ear nuclear shelters across the United States that would have protected people if the Cuban Missile Crisis had ended badly. The photos are a study in architecture, but also transport viewers back to a time when an all-out nuclear war felt like an imminent threat.
“What I’m really trying to do is use the photos to get at the psychology of the country during that time,” Michna-Bales says.
Michna-Bales chose fallout shelters related to the Cuban Missile Crisis because she lives in Dallas, and that was one of the cities that could have been under threat according to recently declassified documents. She shot her first shelter close to home, but has also traveled to cities like Jacksonville, Florida and even shot at President John F. Kennedy’s private atomic bomb shelter near his vacation home in Peanut Island, FL.
To find these old shelters, Michna-Bales combed though archives and old newspaper looking for things like maps that detailed where a city’s public shelters were located. She also contacted local emergency centers to see if they kept a database. Often times, even if she found an address, she’d show up and the shelter would be gone because the building had been torn down, repurposed, etc.
Some of the photos have Cold-War-era government documents or newspaper articles superimposed on top, like one that details what percentage of the population would die if a bomb exploded on the surface nearby. Everyone less than a mile away, it says, would perish. Up to 60 percent of the people within a three-mile radius would also fall victim. Only those who were at least three miles away stood a good chance of surviving.
“I want viewers to see the kind of information people were faced with back then,” she says.
Michna-Bales says the rooms became a sort of time warp. Some still have old furniture and even canned food lying around. While her photos can only hint at the feeling of dread and the uncertain future of civilization, she hopes people are transported back to how emotionally charged the time period was for those who lived through it.
“When you are in these spaces, it’s almost like you can feel the weight of the wold on your shoulders,” she says.
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