Trevor Paglen
In From the Archives of Peter Merlin, Aviation Archaeologist, Trevor Paglen collaborates with Peter Merlin, a former NASA archivist, on a photographic inventory of objects from the aerospace historian’s archive. Featuring images of challenge coins, patches and commemorative mugs from within these bases, as well as debris recovered from the surrounding crash sites, the book presents both a social and technological investigation into the US government’s secret aviation history from the atomic age to today's drone wreckage. The symbols and texts featured on these objects that celebrate covert missions range in character from goofy to sinister, though their actual meaning may never be fully explained to the public.