The height of America's obsession with all things atomic was marked by the crowning of Miss Atomic Bomb; the men stationed at the nuclear testing sites in Las Vegas would often travel into the sparkling city to spend time relaxing with show girls at casinos, and began electing their favourites as icons for the nuclear tests. The winning lady would be crowned with a mushroom cloud, and would even wear one as a costume. The clouds were icons themselves, being both broadcast on television and sold as a tourist attraction in Las Vegas.
In retrospect, the idea of crowning anyone in honour of something so destructive seems garish and in bad taste, but atomic design and obsession pervaded every aspect of American culture at the time. I used the images of various Miss Atomic Bombs to experiment with how the meaning of such images can be distorted and repurposed.