Trevor Paglen

Invisible: Covert Operations and Classified Landscapes is Trevor Paglen's long-awaited first photographic monograph.

Social scientist, artist, writer and provocateur, Paglen has been exploring the secret activities of the U.S. military and intelligence agencies--the "black world"--for the last eight years, publishing, speaking and making astonishing photographs.

As an artist, Paglen is interested in the idea of photography as truth-telling, but his pictures often stop short of traditional ideas of documentation. In the series Limit Telephotography, for example, he employs high-end optical systems to photograph top-secret governmental sites; and in The Other Night Sky, he uses the data of amateur satellite watchers to track and photograph classified spacecraft in Earth's orbit. In other works Paglen transforms documents such as passports, flight data and aliases of CIA operatives into art objects.

Rebecca Solnit contributes a searing essay that traces this history of clandestine military activity on the American landscape.

NEWS:

- New book available! Invisible should be be coming out right about now...

- Working on an updated version of "I Could Tell You..." - it comes out in November.

- Some brand-new works will be at the New Museum in late October.

- Event at SFMOMA: "Is Photography Over?" April 22nd and 23rd, 2010.

- The Quebec City biennial, Manif d'art 5, opens May 1st. Curated by Sylvie Fortin, the show is entitled “Catastrophe? Quelle catastrophe!”

- An article about my work in California Magazine.

- Hard at work preparing a new body of work to debut at Vienna Secession in November.

- Aperture will release my new book "Invisible: Classified Landscapes and Covert Actions" in the fall of 2010. A sneak-peek video is here.

- A Night Sky of Mystery and Wonder: Review of Toronto Star Party; Installation on view at the Power Plant

“Trevor Paglen set out to map the darkest corners of the U. S. national security apparatus. He’s done that and more. The result is a fascinating, deeply troubling, and absolutely essential book.”
—Andrew J. Bacevich

“A chillingly literal tour de force. Paglen doesn’t so much fill in the blanks as trace their outlines and give their shifting shapes a density that says as much about the future of democracy as it does about the dismal confines of the black world.”
—Derek Gregory, Professor of Geography, University of British Columbia

“A glimpse of [the Pentagon’s] dark world through a revealing lens—patches—the kind worn on military uniforms.... The book offers not only clues into the nature of the secret programs, but also a glimpse of zealous male bonding among the presumed elite of the military-industrial complex. The patches often feel like fraternity pranks gone ballistic.”
—William Broad, The New York Times

“Gives readers a peek into the shadows ... Department of Defense spokesman Bob Mehal told Newsweek that it ‘would not be prudent to comment on what patches did or did not represent classified units.’ That’s OK. Some mysteries are more fun when they stay unsolved.”
—Karen Pinchin, Newsweek