Aerial Incendiary Bombs

Unidentified photographer · 1917–18

You're looking at Aerial Incendiary Bombs — a photograph by Unidentified photographer, nineteen seventeen to nineteen eighteen. A gelatin silver print — the standard black-and-white photograph of the twentieth century, paper coated in gelatin holding light-sensitive silver, developed by hand in a tray. In the picture, look for the war.

Medium Gelatin silver print · Dimensions 15 1/2 × 11" (39.4 × 27.9 cm) · Credit Thomas Walther Collection. Gift of Edward Steichen, by exchange

Hanging beside it in Gallery 505: Armored Train in Action, Nickel Construction

Works like this one elsewhere in the museum: Untitled (Western Scene), Koreatown, Los Angeles from the series Fish Story, Homestead, Drawing of Scene 12: The Dream: The Belies, The Great Bear, Phoebus, The Twin Stars, Saturn of the 1902 film A Trip to the Moon (Le Voyage dans la lune), Landscape with Steer, Gladiators

More by Unidentified photographer here: Plane