Paul Ogier: The Prohibited Zone

Paul Ogier works with photography to capture alternative views that offer new perspectives on Australian landscapes. 'Prohibited Zones: Australian Atomic Landscapes' is the culmination of research into former South Australian test sites established by the British Government at both Maralinga and Emu Field at the beginning of the Cold War (1953–63). 

The photographic series comprises images focusing on these two locations, and is influenced by the largely unknown and secretive lens of British atomic bomb photography. Exploring the post-atomic Australian landscape, the work offers a new understanding of place by questioning what the military and allied scientists brought to bear on the surface of the earth—both conceptually and physically. 

Capturing similar locations in the South Australian desert as identified by the British military, 'Prohibited Zones' examines the invisibility of radiation and the isolation it imposes on the land. These photographs propose a new interpretation of the South Australian desert-scapes, challenging the authority of earlier British scientific photographic records and how they depicted these regions.

 

Images: Installation view 'Paul Ogier: The Prohibited Zone', UNSW Galleries 2017. Photograph: Silversalt Photography.