Flooded Silo, Atlas F 556-1 Missile Silo, 2016
Stanley R. Mickelsen Safeguard Complex, 2013
ICBM Missile Display, National Museum of the U.S.A.F., 2016
Missile Elevator, C-94 Launch Facility, 2016
Blast Lock Area, Titan Missile Museum, 2015
Access Portal, Titan Missile Museum, 2015
Launch Control Facility, Atlas F 556-1 Missile Silo, 2016
Stairwell entry, Atlas F 556-1 Missile Silo, 2016
Attack Center, Submarine Force Museum, 2016
Exhibition Hall Blast Door, Greenbrier Hotel, 2013
Rolnick Observatory, BR-73 Launch Control Site, 2016
West Tunnel Entrance, Project Greek Island, 2013
Cableway, Titan Missile Museum, 2015
Launch Control Center, Titan Missile Museum, 2015
Discone Antenna, Titan Missile Museum, 2015
Titan II Missile, Titan Missile Museum, 2016
Thermonuclear Bomb, 2014
Delta Nine Launch Facility, 2013
November-33 Missile Launch Facility, 2013
Commander Station, Oscar Zero Missile Alert Facility, 2013
Northbrook VORTAC OBK Tower, C-92/94 Launch Control Facility, 2013
Silo Level Two, Titan Missile Museum, 2015
Cold War Tourism
During the 1950’s the U.S. Government was hard at work building top-secret facilities for many purposes relating to the Cold War. Initially, the facilities were designed to defend against bomber attacks. As technology progressed the government built massive bunkers designed to survive nuclear attacks, silos for intercontinental ballistic missiles, and a national communications network to activate the military in the case of a nuclear attack.
Since 2013, I have photographed many of the Nike missile defense sites in the Chicago area, the former Congressional Continuity of Government bunker in West Virginia, a bunker in Massachusetts that would have been used to coordinate missile strikes during World War III, and missile sites in the Great Plains, Arizona, and New York. All the sites that I visit allow some sort of tour; most function as museums and are regularly open to the public.
My intention in these photographs is to show the tremendous government preparedness for an attack, the secretive construction hidden in plain sight, and the function as tourists’ entertainment today.
Each piece is output as an archival pigment print sized approximately 20”x30” (image) with a white border and white frame sized at 24”x36”.