BGuthrie Photos: DC -- National Academy of Sciences Bldg -- Exhibit: Ground Truth: Corona Landmarks

DC -- National Academy of Sciences Bldg -- Exhibit: Ground Truth: Corona Landmarks:

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Description of Pictures: Ground Truth: Corona Landmarks
An Exhibition by Julie Anand and Damon Sauer
September 24, 2018 - February 22, 2019
In this series of photographs of what remains of the Corona project, Julie Anand and Damon Sauer investigate our relationship to the vast networks of information that encircle the globe. The Corona project was a CIA and U.S. Air Force surveillance initiative that began in the 1960s and ended in 1972. It involved using cameras on satellites to take aerial photographs of the Soviet Union and China. The cameras were calibrated with concrete targets on the ground that are 60 feet in diameter, which provided a reference for scale and ensured images were in focus.
Approximately 273 of these concrete targets were placed on a 16-square-mile grid in the Arizona desert, spaced a mile apart. Long after Corona’s end and its declassification in 1995, around 180 remain, and Anand and Sauer have spent three years photographing them as part of an ongoing project. In their images, each concrete target is overpowered by an expansive sky, onto which the artists map the paths of orbiting satellites present at the moment each photograph was taken. For Anand and Sauer, “these markers of space have become markers of time, representing a poignant moment in geopolitical and technologic social history.” This exhibition featured six large photographs and a grid of 14 smaller works from the series. Also on view will be an interactive map of the targets Anand and Sauer have photographed to date and a video detailing their process.
Julie Anand and Damon Sauer are artists and educators based in Phoenix, Arizona. Anand is currently Associate Professor in the School of Art at Arizona State University and Sauer serves as an Assistant Professor at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh—Online Division. Both received their MFA degrees in Photography from the University of New Mexico and began collaborating with each other in 2005. Ground Truth: Corona Landmarks was recently featured in Hyperallergic, Wired magazine and Politiken, a print newspaper in Denmark. Works from the series are in the collections of the Michener Art Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

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[1] NASGRN_181213_003.JPG	[2] NASGRN_181213_006.JPG	[3] NASGRN_181213_011.JPG
[4] NASGRN_181213_017.JPG	[5] NASGRN_181213_020.JPG	[6] NASGRN_181213_024.JPG
[7] NASGRN_181213_030.JPG	[8] NASGRN_181213_037.JPG	[9] NASGRN_181213_043.JPG
[10] NASGRN_181213_049.JPG	[11] NASGRN_181213_055.JPG	[12] NASGRN_181213_062.JPG
[13] NASGRN_181213_065.JPG	[14] NASGRN_181213_071.JPG	[15] NASGRN_181213_073.JPG
[16] NASGRN_181213_081.JPG	[17] NASGRN_181213_090.JPG	[18] NASGRN_181213_094.JPG
[19] NASGRN_181213_099.JPG	[20] NASGRN_181213_106.JPG	[21] NASGRN_181213_108.JPG
[22] NASGRN_181213_113.JPG	[23] NASGRN_181213_118.JPG	[24] NASGRN_181213_121.JPG
[25] NASGRN_181213_125.JPG	[26] NASGRN_181213_129.JPG	[27] NASGRN_181213_139.JPG
[28] NASGRN_181213_147.JPG

Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. NASGRN_181213_006.JPG: Ground Truth Corona Landmarks Julie Anand * Damon Sauer Ground Truth: Corona Landmarks In this series of images of what remains of the Corona project, Julie Anand and Damon Sauer investigate our relationship to the vast networks of information that encircle the globe. The Corona project was a CIA and U.S. Air Force surveillance initiative that began in 1959 and ended in 1972. It involved using cameras on satellites to take aerial photographs of the Soviet Union and China. The cameras were calibrated with concrete targets on the ground that are 60 feet in diameter, which provided a reference for scale and ensured images were in focus. Approximately 273 of these concrete targets were placed on a 16-square-mile grid in the Arizona des-ert, spaced a mile apart. Long after Corona's end and its declassification in 1995, around 180 remain, and Anand and Sauer have spent three years photographing them as part of an ongoing project. In their images, each concrete target is overpowered by an expansive sky, onto which the artists map the paths of orbiting satellites that were present at the moment the photograph was taken. For Anand and Sauer, "these markers of space have become markers of time, representing a poignant moment in geopolitical and technologic social history." Anand and Sauer are artists and educators based in Phoenix, Arizona. Anand is currently associate professor in the School of Art at Arizona State University and Sauer serves as an assistant professor at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh -- Online Division. Both received their MFA degrees in Photography from the University of New Mexico and began collaborating in 2005. This exhibition is sponsored by Cultural Programs of the National Academy of Science.
2. NASGRN_181213_020.JPG: Calibration Mark AG49 with Satellites 2016 archival pigment print 55 x 44 inches A few of the calibration markers like this one are made primarily of rock rather than concrete. The artists hypothesize that it is because they were constructed at higher elevations and the weight of the materials, including water at 8 pounds per gallon, would be too labor intensive to transport. Only markers at higher elevations were built from rock. The artists like the way the rock references earlier civilizations' rock formations which were also meant to be seen from the sky.
3. NASGRN_181213_024.JPG: Calibration Mark AL58 with Satellites 2018 Archival pigment print 55 x 44 inches In this image, the power lines and the satellite orbits intersect -- two overlapping human-made networks. The area in Arizona's Sonoran desert where Julie Anand and Damon Sauer are photographing is rapidly changing from agricultural to suburban and many power lines are being installed
4. NASGRN_181213_043.JPG: Calibration Mark AJ56 with Satellites 2017 Archival pigment print 55 x 44 inches There is great variation in the skies of Julie Anand and Damon Sauer's images. During most of the year, clouds burn off by midday, giving way to a bright blue sky. It creates a contrasting background for the satellite orbit lines they add to the images later. Look closely, and you can see the names of the satellites that were orbiting in the sky at the moment Anand and Sauer took the photo. They took this photo in the summer, when it is so hot that they have to complete their field work before 8 a.m. when it hits around 100� Fahrenheit
5. NASGRN_181213_049.JPG: Calibration Mark AE53 with Satellites 2018 archival pigment print 55 x 44 inches Julie Anand notes, "We made this work after a rain so the mesquites and creosote are really green. We were excited about this marker because of the truly odd fence division running through it. What you can't see from the picture because of the composition is that the fence is limited to just across the marker. It stops on both sides of the marker just out of frame. The markers fall on private property, open desert, farms, etc. This marker is on the edge of a Native American reservation. We haven't photographed on the reservation yet because we have yet to negotiate permissions for photographing there. Approximately one third the markers we haven't photographed are located on Native American land."
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