Photographs and text by David Maisel
Essays by William L. Fox, Tyler Green, Katie Lee-Koven, and Geoff Manaugh
Edited by Alan Rapp
250 pp.; 145 reproductions; 11.5 x 11.5 inches, casebound
Co-published by Radius Books and Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art/Utah State University
Publication Date: Winter 2020
ISBN: 978-1-942185-66-6
“A complex examination from the artist about the choices we have made about how to use our Western lands and the implications of those decisions…. The experience is one of immersion and disorientation, a series of otherworldly landscapes.” —Rebecca Senf, Chief Curator, Center for Creative Photography
“The majestic beauty of barren landscapes and weapons of mass destruction, revealed in the hands of a master photographer.” —Richard Danzig, 71st Secretary of the Navy
David Maisel’s Proving Ground comprises aerial and on-site photographs made at Dugway Proving Ground, a vast military compound covering nearly 800,000 acres in a remote region of Utah’s Great Salt Lake Desert. A primary mission of Dugway is to develop, test, and implement chemical and biological weaponry and defense programs. The site is key to the national security arena and an enigma to almost everyone else. As with Maisel’s other subjects of investigation, Proving Ground is freighted with questions surrounding power, secrecy, land use, and an abiding skepticism toward technology and human endeavor.
For more information, please visit Radius Books.
For information on the Limited Edition print in support of this monograph, please see here.