10% — Concerning the Image Archive of…

Unknown lady in the radiation protection department, puddle, dancing couple in costume, damage to a waste drum, retiree send-off, lead shielding, burnt-out glovebox, scorpion with microchip—these are all captions to photographs of Germany’s first major nuclear research facility. In 1957, professional photographers began to make an on-site record of procedures at the Kernforschungszentrum Karlsruhe (KfK, Karlsruhe Nuclear Research Center). In 2017, the decision was made to digitize ten percent of this image archive. Based on current concerns regarding the whereabouts of contaminated nuclear waste, the publication brings together over thirty perspectives from the fields of art, sociology, politics, and science as well as accounts of people who were directly involved with the facility. “10%. Concerning the Image Archive of a Nuclear Research Center” sets out to delineate and visualize the afterlife of nuclear research.