Barry W Hughes is a photographer, writer and editor. His work has been published and exhibited internationally including solo shows in Ireland, Germany and China. Since establishing the online platform SMBHmag in 2009, Hughes has authored many features with leading contemporary photographers for international publications, including regularly writing for HOTSHOE since 2012. He has delivered lectures and reviewed portfolios for a number of universities, festivals and institutions, while also working professionally in cultural communications.
Metastatic
The Conqueror (1956) directed by Dick Powel and starring John Wayne and Susan Hayward was shot on location at Snow Canyon State Park in Utah, USA, during May-August of 1954. Snow Canyon is located 220 km downwind of Yucca Flats, Nevada, where above ground atomic testing lasted from 1951-1953, including 11 tests named Operation Upshot-Knothole in 1953.
It was widely rumored that the director, leading stars and a total of 91 of the 220 crew all died of cancer directly relating to the radiation fallout from the previous nuclear testing in the area, helped largely by an article in the November 10, 1980 issue of People magazine.
However, contemporary and subsequent testing of the area for any hazardous material and related health issues have consistently contradicted the rumors, and it is now a recognised fact that none of the 91 crew could have contracted cancer from Operation Upshot-Knothole due mainly to the type and location of testing, fallout present and the time scale involved. Data collected in the Snow Canyon area in May of 1954 indicated the radiation levels were essentially background.
What was more probable for the high levels of cancer in the cast and crew was the sheer volume of smoking cigarettes at that time; John Wayne for example smoked five packs a day and contracted lung cancer in 1964. Furthermore, the National Cancer Institute of America stated that “the overall incidence of being diagnosed with cancer in a person’s lifetime is about 40%.” Thus in a cohort of 220 people, 88 would be diagnosed with cancer at some point, 91 being within the expected range.
The myth surrounding The Conqueror has continued to linger, and it was this coincidental story which I have attempted to capture by photographing the landscape as it appears in the original film. The series follows the narrative of the film from opening shot to climax and closing shot. Exploiting the camera and TV screen’s natural interplay of distortions of colour and pixelation, resulting in a visual static, the images seem to buzz with the supposed radioactivity believed to have been present during the filming of The Conqueror. The title Metastatic relates to both metastasis (a Greek word meaning “displacement” and a secondary cancerous growth formed by transmission of cancerous cells from a primary growth located elsewhere in the body), and also the static electrical charges commonly associated with TV screens.
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