Roland Miller is on a mission to document the deserted sites of America's space race.
--The Guardian
Abandoned in Place
Preserving America's Space History
Description
Stenciled on many of the deactivated facilities at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, the evocative phrase “abandoned in place” indicates the structures that have been deserted. Some structures, too solid for any known method of demolition, stand empty and unused in the wake of the early period of US space exploration. Now Roland Miller’s color photographs document the NASA, Air Force, and Army facilities across the nation that once played a crucial role in the space race.
Rapidly succumbing to the elements and demolition, most of the blockhouses, launch towers, tunnels, test stands, and control rooms featured in Abandoned in Place are located at secure military or NASA facilities with little or no public access. Some have been repurposed, but over half of the facilities photographed no longer exist. The haunting images collected here impart artistic insight while preserving an important period in history.
Pages176
Released2016
LanguageEnglish
PublisherUniversity of New Mexico Press
ISBN9780826356260
SellerSimon & Schuster
About the author(s)
Roland Miller is the dean of the Communication Arts, Humanities and Fine Arts Division at the College of Lake County in Grayslake, Illinois.
Roger D. Launius is the associate director for collections and curatorial affairs, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution.
Bob Thall is a professor of photography at Columbia College, Chicago. He has published many photography books, including At City's Edge: Photographs of Chicago's Lakefront.
Betsy Fahlman, a professor of art history at Arizona State University, is also the author of New Deal Art in Arizona and other books.
Reviews
A phenomenal collection of images.
--Crave Online
A phenomenal collection of images.
--Crave Online
[Miller] is completely connected to his subjects, and his photographs are a visual extension, filled with reverence and empathy.
--Quest
Abandoned in Place can be read as a reverent tour of history, but it's also a touchstone to a way of looking at the world and the future that unified a nation in ways that few things can.
--Vantage
[Roland Miller] showcases images of deactivated and repurposed defense facilities and space-launch sites around the country.
--The Wall Street Journal
Miller's arresting photographs are a testament to the early days of American space exploration. They allow us to glimpse part of what went into achieving what Kennedy called 'the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure on which man has ever embarked.'
--Atlas Obscura
Serves not only as a documentary body of work, but also as an artistic interpretation of these historic sites, preserving a vanishing era in both the space race and the cold war.
--Space.com
More than just a remembrance of a lost age of infrastructure, Abandoned in Place is a meditation on landscapes of immense historical significance that are overlooked by historic preservation.
--Co.Design
Chronicles long-neglected and largely forgotten aspects of US space history.
--Forbes
