The project focuses on the first US surveillance satellites, known as ‘Corona’, and the silver-based photographs they produced. It highlights the journey of an analogue archive from space, a process which underscores the fragility of the material and the possibility of its own destruction. The perilous process of recovering these photographs required the rolls of film to be ejected from the satellite, equipped with a parachute, and then recovered in flight by an aeroplane. The development of the films and the revelation of the images depended on this operation: if the films crashed, they were lost.

Coming Soon

The project focuses on the first US surveillance satellites, known as ‘Corona’, and the silver-based photographs they produced. It highlights the journey of an analogue archive from space, a process which underscores the fragility of the material and the possibility of its own destruction. The perilous process of recovering these photographs required the rolls of film to be ejected from the satellite, equipped with a parachute, and then recovered in flight by an aeroplane. The development of the films and the revelation of the images depended on this operation: if the films crashed, they were lost.

Coming Soon

L’Archive verticale s’intéresse aux premiers satellites de surveillance américains, connus sous le nom de Corona, ainsi qu’aux photographies argentiques qu’ils ont produites.

Le projet retrace le parcours d’une archive analogique venue de l’espace, révélant à la fois la fragilité de son support matériel et la possibilité constante de sa disparition.

Le processus de récupération de ces images était particulièrement périlleux : les rouleaux de pellicule étaient éjectés depuis le satellite, munis d’un parachute, avant d’être interceptés en plein vol par un avion. Le développement des films et l’apparition même des images dépendaient entièrement du succès de cette opération : en cas de chute, les pellicules étaient irrémédiablement perdues.

Prochainement