Further West
History has shown us time and time again that we take what we want. We couch our imperialism in terms of progress, or divine right, or manifest destiny, but it comes to the same thing. I love science and the expansion of human knowledge, space travel, and exploring the unknown. But I question the idea of terraforming another planet and looking for an escape route while we exploit and destroy the resources of our home. Of course, that isn’t the whole story. These images are curious, beautiful, and represent a sense of wonder. They represent the work of brilliant scientists and engineers who created the technology that allows us to see the surface details of a planet 100 million miles away. There are no answers here, only meditations on our mediated experience of the unknown and reflections on our responsibilities to each other here on Earth.
These tintypes are made from images captured by the HiRISE (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) camera housed on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The plates are made in-camera by photographing edited sections of the RAW images.
