Abandoned in Place: Preserving America’s Space History - Hardcover

Miller, Roland

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0826356257 ISBN 13: 9780826356253

Publisher: University of New Mexico Press, 2016

Synopsis

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.

About this title

About the Author

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.

Craig Covault, a journalist who has written thousands of articles on space and aviation, spent many years at Aviation Week and Space Technology, where he was a senior editor. He covered every US space launch since Apollo, including Apollo-Soyuz, Skylab, and the Space Shuttle.

Review

"Roland Miller is on a mission to document the deserted sites of America's space race."
--The Guardian

"Abandoned in Place beautifully documents, both in images and words, the architecture and engineering of a period in which anything was possible: the first Space Age."
--SpaceFlight

"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

Edition details

• Publisher: University of New Mexico Press
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 0826356257
• ISBN 13: 9780826356253
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 176