PLA.net

The internet has brought a swift and drastic change in our attitude towards photographs. Thousands of photos are uploaded online every minute, creating considerable visual noise around us. Many of these images are by tourists; they take a shot of a particular spot over and over, with the sheer purpose of having visual proof that they themselves were there. PLA.net is a book that presents the countries of the world with a twist. Unlike conventional atlases, we can’t find any pictures, maps or information about the nations included. It is rather a pool of internet images and representations of these places – the product of an equalising algorithm. This algorithm mines photos which have been uploaded from a given country, with no subsequent editing or intervention. In the end, the assembly of images offer an alternative take on the true character of the countries they signify.

During a workshop on misinformation and fake news, I began to look for photographs whose truth and authenticity could not be questioned. I came across a series of satellite images taken via espionage efforts during the Cold War; their resolution was almost exactly the same as that of today’s publicly available photographs, taken by commercial satellites. In the project Keyhole, I use this strange coincidence to create a fictional story. The resulting photobook contains today’s satellite images that I transformed into black and white through digital post-processing. These ageless images – containing traces of factories, railway stations, railway bridges and sensitive military facilities – easily convince the viewer that they date back to the spy satellites of the 1960s. Through this pseudo-document, my aim is to illustrate the vulnerability of the everyday media consumer.