White Sun

[Image: "How to photograph an atomic bomb," via the New York Times].

The New York Times is featuring a powerful series of photographs documenting the work of a "secret corps" of "atomic moviemakers."

Electrified wire ringed their headquarters in the Hollywood Hills. The inconspicuous building, on Wonderland Avenue in Laurel Canyon, had a sound stage, screening rooms, processing labs, animation gear, film vaults and a staff of more than 250 producers, directors and cameramen—all with top-secret clearances.

This cinematographic brotherhood "focused on nuclear test explosions in the Pacific and Nevada," though their work is only now being seen by the general public. "In all, the atomic moviemakers fashioned 6,500 secret films," the New York Times reports.