"A Photo Essay on the Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki" by Philip Levine demonstrates the true horror and devastation caused by the dropping of the first atomic bombs on the two Japanese cities. The first city to be attacked was Hiroshima on August 6th, 1945. The bomb, nicknamed "little boy", caused 140,000 deaths and only 8% of the city escaped damage. Nagasaki was the second city to be attacked on August 9th, 1945. The bomb, nicknamed "fat man", caused 73,884 deaths and 74,909 injured and 36.1% escaped damage. After the bombing of Nagasaki the Japanese emperor surrendered. In his photo essay Levine uses contrast, color, realism, and similarity in the images to display the magnitude of destruction caused by the bombs. 

Levine uses contrast in almost every picture. The best example is the tenth picture of the tree. Everything around it has been obliterated into rumble, except for the tree. Levine chose this picture because the reader's eye is instantly drawn to the tree. This use of contrast is meant to make the reader speculate about what was around the tree before the blast; perhaps there was a playground or a barbershop. These images amplify the emotion and suddenly the reader no longer sees a tree and rumble, they see a neighborhood. A similar effect occurs when looking at the seventh image of a lunch box. The image is purposely put against a white background to contrast the image and puts focus on the box. This causes the reader to imagine the owner's parents sending a child off to school without knowing they would never see her again. Maybe the reader starts to think about their own kids. Now it is not simply a lunch box, the reader sees a scared child. Levine purposely chooses these images with contrast to cause the reader's mind to imagine how the japanese were feeling before the blast. 

Levine also switches between black and white and color images to amplify the reader's reaction. For example, the third image is in color to give it greater detail. This allows the reader to see individual pieces of rubble rather than just pure destruction. He can see the each individual brick on the buildings to the left, the burned carcass of a house, and exact damage done to the atomic bomb dome. If the image was black and white the image would lose some detail and the reader would not get the full effect. On the other hand, the images of the bottle, binoculars, and the lunch box are purposely black and white. Levine wants the reader to focus less on the image and more on the story behind the items the heat need to melt the bottles, the young officer who owned the binoculars, and the girl who owned the lunch box. In addition, it makes the reader realize that items are nothing if they don't have an owner. This is why the reader does not imagine what the item went through, but what the person who owned the item went through. When the reader imagines these things it adds to the effect of the image that might be lessened if the images were in color.

The next visual effect that Levine uses is realism. Levine only included photographs, not drawings. He did this to keep the focus broad and keep the reader speculating about what all aspects of japanese society were experiencing rather than the artist's story. Another reason why Levine only used photos is to avoid losing the emotion attached to the images. If the reader sees a drawing of a mushroom cloud, it is hypothetical there is nothing attached to it; however if the reader sees a photo of the mushroom cloud over Hiroshima, they think that cloud killed 140,000 people. 

The final visual effect used by Levine is similarity. By repeatedly using similar images Levine stacks the effect they have on readers. If a reader saw just one image of the destruction left behind after the blast, they might believe it was only a small area was destroyed; however, if they see repeated pictures of destruction it will sink in that most of the cities were devastated. The combined images of the bottle, the burn marks on the bridge, and the victim with her skin burnt off have a much greater effect than they do separate from each other. Another way Levine uses similarity is the order of the images in the photo essay. The first image is the view of the mushroom cloud from a plane, similarly the second photo is another image of the wide scale destruction. Towards the middle of the photo essay Levine includes multiple pictures of survivors of the blast, unlike the pictures above they are all medium size. Finally, Levine progresses to images of burn marks on telephone poles and bridges, in addition to images of small items such as binoculars, a lunch box, and a melted bottle.

To summarize, in order to show the level of destruction caused by the atomic bombs, Philip Levine uses visual effects such as contrast, color, realism, and similarity in "A Photo Essay on the Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki." Contrast was used to focus the reader's attention to a specific point and to cause the reader to speculate about what various aspects of society were experiencing. The use of both black and white and color pictures was intended to shift the reader's perspective of the picture. Realism is used in the form of photos over drawings, since they allow multiple point of views to be seen and carried more emotion. Finally, similarity was used to amplify the effect of the picture by grouping them together, as well as placing them in order from largest to smallest.

