TREVOR PAGLEN – TERRITORY
2020-07-06Trevor Paglen’s new photographs position the origins of computer vision, facial recognition, and artificial intelligence in the tradition of landscape photography of the American West. Examining histories of seeing in relation to technological advancements, Paglen reveals underlying structures of power and the changing role of the image.
Capturing dramatic vistas shot around Yosemite, Black Canyon, the California Coast, and other iconic landscapes, Paglen refers to classic works by Muybridge, O’Sullivan, Watkins, Hillers, and other 19th century “frontier” photographers. While we often encounter these historical referents in a museum setting today, many of these seminal images were originally produced for the US Department of War on military “reconnaissance” surveys and are embedded with the colonial narratives of Western Expansion. What would a contemporary iteration of frontier photography reveal about our current structures of power?
Opposite – The Glen Canyon Deep Semantic Image Segments, 2020
Exhibition runs through to August 8th, 2020
Altman Siegel Gallery
1150 25th Street
San Francisco
CA 94107
