The “discovery” of radioactivity at the start of the 20th century was the outcome of a photographic process: autoradiography (the photographic printing of radioactive minerals on a photosensitive surface). This oft-cited foundational myth spread beyond scientific circles in Paris and encouraged a certain idea of the atom that continues to shape its representations to this day. The author analyses autoradiographs and photographs of ‘nuclear matter’ taken from mining and atomic test sites by Fritz Goro (1901–1986), scientific photographer for Life magazine. The essay aims to shed light on the issues raised by the publication of these photographs in the pages of the weekly magazine and, beyond that, on their current ecological ramifications. In an echo of the extractive origins of photography itself, Goro’s approach combines photographic and extractivist practices from the dawn of the atomic age–highlighting more contemporary artistic projects.