Cold War Games

An uneasy tranquillity infuses Carole Gallagher's stark, luminous photographs in "American Ground Zero," her chronicle of the poisoned lives and landscapes left behind by America's nuclear-testing program in the 1950s and 60s, on exhibitfrom April 8 to June 19 atthe International Center of Photography. In 1983, Gallagher dropped out of her life as a successful New York art photographer and spent 10 years in Utah, Nevada, and South Dakota, documenting the lingering wounds inflicted by America's nuclear cold warriors. 'There is a culture of radiation, a culture of cancer, out there," she says, "that the government was pretending didn't exist." No one is pretending any longer, thanks in part to Gallagher's unflinching gaze. American Ground Zero, with additional photographs, was published last year by the M.l.T. Press. It won the prestigious Pope Award for investigative journalism, and ABC News recently used her work as the basis for a prime-time documentary. This month Random House will issue the book in paperback, and the show is scheduled to tour internationally through 1996.

DWIGHT GARNER