
[email protected]
Trevor Paglen was born in 1974 in Camp Springs, Maryland. Trained as a geographer and photographer, Paglen makes the invisible visible by documenting the American surveillance state of the 21st century. From his vantage points at various public locations, he photographs distant military facilities, capturing extreme telephoto images of stealth drones. Turning his vision to the night sky, he traces the paths of information-gathering satellites.
In his series of Mylar satellites, Paglen applies advanced engineering to the creation of non-functional objects, stripping technology of its intended purpose and hoping to launch his own time capsule of photographs into geostationary orbit. Tracing the ways in which the convergence of aesthetics, industrial design, and politics influence how we see and understand the world, he shows us images of the American West, originally photographed for military use and now considered examples of classic photography. In images that go beyond straightforward journalistic documentation, Paglen gives voice to shifting ideas of the landscape of the American West, humankind’s place in the cosmos, and the surveillance state.
Trevor Paglen received a BA from the University of California at Berkeley, an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and a PhD in Geography from the University of California at Berkeley. He has had residencies at Artpace and MIT, and his honors include a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship; Aperture West Prize; SFMoMA SECA Award; Art Matters Grant; and an Artadia Grant.
His work has appeared in major exhibitions at the Cartagena Biennial; Center for Art Design and Visual Culture, Baltimore; Van Abbemuseum; Protocinema, Istanbul; Creative Time; Liverpool Biennial; Guangzhou Triennial; Secession, Vienna; Kunsthall Oslo; Kunsthalle Giessen; FotoFest Biennial; Istanbul Biennial; Havana Biennial; Berkeley Art Museum; Taipei Biennial; and the California College of Arts and Crafts. Trevor Paglen lives and works in New York.
Videos
Books
News
Related Speakers View all
![]() |
Bruce Nauman
Contemporary & Modern Artist
|
![]() |
Petra Collins
Artist, Photographer & Generation Z Influencer
|
![]() |
Angélica Dass
Artist & Photographer
|
![]() |
Alec Soth
Photographer
|
![]() |
Alex Webb
Photographer with Magnum Photos
|
![]() |
Alexa Meade
Mixed-Media Painter & Installation Artist
|
![]() |
David Hockney
Legendary Artist; Painter, Draftsman, Printmaker, St...
|
![]() |
Cristina Mittermeier
Photographer, Adventurer & Co-Founder of SeaLegacy
|
![]() |
Deborah Willis
Professor & Chair of the Department of Photography a...
|
![]() |
Kate McCambridge
Installation & Performance Artist
|
![]() |
Kit Eaton
Writer at the New York Times
|
![]() |
Stephen Wilkes
Fine Artist, Commercial Photographer, Creator of Day...
|
![]() |
Jackie Nickerson
Photographer & Artist
|
![]() |
Amanda Williams
Visual Artist
|
![]() |
Molly Wright Steenson
Associate Professor & Chair of the Doctor of Design ...
|
![]() |
Lorna Simpson
Award Winning Photographer & Visual Artist
|
![]() |
Gary Miliefsky
Cybersecurity Expert; Founder of SnoopWall
|
![]() |
Regina Barzilay
Computational Linguist
|
![]() |
Wendi Whitmore
Cybersecurity Leader; Vice President of IBM X-Force ...
|
![]() |
Melody Hildebrandt
Global Chief Information Security Officer at 21st Ce...
|