I'm Trevor Paglen, and I've been asked to provide some of the visual interventions this week. Here's a brief introduction to my work:
For the last 5 years or so, I've been interested in the space of military secrecy from a number of angles (visual, juridical, material, etc...). I'm currently finishing up a PhD in the Department of Geography at UC Berkeley about all of this. I also recently published a book (with co-author AC Thompson) about the 'extraordinary rendition' program and the CIA's network of 'black sites' around the world. I try to combine art, scholarship, and research in a fluid, seamless, way.
One of the sub-projects within this body of work is a series I've been called "Limit Telephotography" - it's a series of photographs I've been taking of "black" or unacknowledged military bases, most of which are in the southwestern United States.
I've also had the opportunity to photograph some of these CIA 'black sites' while running around the world researching the "Torture Taxi" book, but those images will become public at a show in New York opening on November 16th.
