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Image of Gallery in South Kensington
On display at V&A South Kensington
Design 1900 to Now, Room 76

Headquarters of the National Security Agency, Fort Meade, Maryland

Photograph
2014
Artist/Maker
Paglen, Trevor (Photographer)
Place of origin
USA

A mounted C-print photograph showing a series of buildings. A car park and yellow lights surround the buildings.


Object details

Category
Photographs
Object type
photograph
TitleHeadquarters of the National Security Agency, Fort Meade, Maryland (assigned by artist)
Materials and techniques
Ink
Card
Photography
C-Type Process
Brief description
'Headquarters of the National Security Agency, Fort Meade, Maryland' Trevor Paglen, 2014
Physical description
A mounted C-print photograph showing a series of buildings. A car park and yellow lights surround the buildings.
Dimensions
  • Height: 14.1cm
  • Width: 9cm
Style
Art Photography
Copy number
3 of 5
Gallery label
  • This object sits in the "Data and Communication" section of the Design 1900-Now gallery, opened June 2021 Making the surveillance state visible Trevor Paglen took these photographs of US intelligence agencies from a helicopter, using a camera fitted with telescopic equipment. He was motivated by Edward Snowden’s leaking of highlyclassified intelligence documents revealing the digital surveillance of citizens across the globe in 2013. The images form part of Paglen’s effort ‘to develop a visual and cultural language around surveillance’. Photographs revealing surveillance infrastructure ‘Headquarters of the National Security Agency, Fort Meade, Maryland’ and ‘National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency Headquarters, Springfield, Virginia’, 2014 Photographed by Trevor Paglen, USA C-prints Purchased through the Design Fund Museum nos. CD.7, 9-2017
  • From The Future Starts Here These photographs are of three of the largest US intelligence agencies. Much of their activities were unknown to the public until August 2014 when Edward Snowden leaked classified documents outlining their inner workings. Three months later, the artist Trevor Paglen hired a helicopter to photograph the agencies’ buildings, releasing the images as creative commons. As Paglen says, ‘If we look in the right places at the right times, we can begin to glimpse America’s vast intelligence infrastructure’. C-print V&A: CD.7,8,9-2017 Trevor Paglen 2014 PHOTOS REVEALING THE SURVEILLANCE STATE Top to bottom: NGA Headquarters (Springfield, Virginia) Trevor Paglen 2014 NRO Headquarters (Chantilly, Virginia) Trevor Paglen 2014 NSA Headquarters (Fort Meade, Maryland) Trevor Paglen 2014(May 2018)
Credit line
Purchased by the Design Fund
Subject depicted
National Security Agency
Places depicted
Maryland
Fort Meade
Collection
Design, Architecture and Digital Department
Accession number
CD.7-2017

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Record createdJuly 16, 2015
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1317589/headquarters-of-the-national-security-photograph-paglen-trevor/
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