Head over to Google and type “nuclear weapons” in the search bar. What do you see? Radiation symbols, mushroom clouds, and warheads of every shape and size, sprinkled with the occasional likeness of Vladimir Putin or Kim Jong Un? Dig a little deeper, and maybe you see some historical imagery of the bombing of Hiroshima or the southwestern US’ nuclear heydey, complete with atomic tourism and nuclear pageantry? These images feel far away, distant in both time and space. But nuclear weapons are a present reality, one that employs and impacts real people today.
Inkstick seeks a more present and proximate picture (literally) of the people in and around today’s nuclear industry. Protesters outside a nuclear facility, union workers coming together to explore green industry alternatives, communities impacted by the production of nuclear weapons.
We are looking for photojournalists who want to explore this seemingly surreal weaponry and help us understand what it looks like today. Images should not focus on the weapons or their resulting damage, but the humans at the center of and impacted by the industry.
Not a nuclear weapons expert? Don’t worry, we’ve got your back! We’re looking for photojournalists in the field, from places like the Pantex warhead storage facility in the Texas panhandle, or the rural corner of South Carolina where construction workers are building a new plutonium pit production plant at the Savannah River Site, or Utah’s West Desert, where the world’s largest nuclear weapons manufacturer, Northrop Grumman, tests its missiles.
This is a grant-funded project with commissions starting at $1,500. Send your pitch including budget requirements with the subject line “Nuclear Weapons Industry Imagery” to Laicie Heeley (lheeley@inkstickmedia.com) and Taylor Barnes (tbarnes@inkstickmedia.com). And see our submissions page here for more details on what we look for at Inkstick.
