©NASA/JPL-Caltech/Michael Benson/Kinetikon Pictures

By digging through the online image archives of various space probe missions, photographer and filmmaker, Michael Benson, has compiled his third collection of planetary landscape photography. The images–many of them close-ups of the surfaces of moons, asteroids and Mars–offer an awe-inspiring look at the desolate places that were once only imagined by science fiction writers and filmmakers. Benson photographs the black-and-white images through various filters to render the scenes in color, then he layers the images with a complicated compositing process. Going through the RAW images, he says, “is like being along for the ride. There’s a lot of panning for gold in the archives, which I really enjoy. And if you’re lucky you get something really unusual. You just sort of know it when you see it.” Shown above is a Cassini space probe image from January 18, 2005, showing the moon Mimas in transit across the northern hemisphere of Saturn. The images are among a collection published in Planetfall (Abrams) last October, and will be on view at the Hasted Kraeutler gallery in New York City today through March 9.  To learn more about Benson’s work, read the Q+A with him from the November 2012 issue of PDN. (more…)

© Sharon Harper

Sharon Harper’s photographic interests lie at the intersection of technology and perception, science and art. She photographs phenomenon, particularly relating to the moon, stars and other celestial objects, that the eye cannot process, using both large-format cameras and 35mm cameras attached to telescopes. Her images record empirical evidence, and at the same time evoke a sense of wonder. Harper explains, “The camera can be seen as a metaphor for the pervasive presence of technology within the landscape, a presence that often interrupts our experience of the natural world. Here the camera creates possibilities for re-interpreting contemporary experience as it mediates and records, generating images that cannot be seen without it.” Her first monograph, From Above and Below, will be released next month by Radius Books.

(more…)