1110-2300F ore
Den Staf
moot press
“The more general point to be made here is that censorship, concealment, camouflage – whatever one wants to call it – is not immediately or necessarily legible and so tends to be rather different from the white spaces of earlier maps, which clearly signal that something is missing or has been excised.” - Mark Dorrian, ‘On Google Earth’
§ Introduction It was George Goddard who pioneered long-range highaltitude photography from the early twenties on. It was George Goddard who pushed aerial development high, low, daylight and dark when no one could have cared less. It was George It was George It was the cameras in the U-2s, the cameras in the low-runs, the clarity, the resolution, the works. There isn’t a thing you can say that isn’t traceable in part to his efforts. And even more than that there isn’t much you can say about aerial photography, looking at the earth or into space. §
i. They did their cooking, washing, and other rituals beside the river and in it. Garlic, rice, and fish were their main staples. The smell left me feeling nauseated and Marge with her hankerchief to her nose.
ii. The country from our usual mapping altitude of 16,500 feet was like one giant green carpet with very few landmarks such as roads, fields or rivers.
iii. Nevertheless, the air-raid sirens did wail quite frequently, and for the first couple of nights I trooped down into the underground to take my assigned bunk amid a sea of bodies and a conglomerate odor that somehow reminded me of the stretch of village road between Manila and Camp Nichols.
iv. Today in Vietnam they are penetrating the tangled jungles and the cleverly camouflaged supply routes of the enemy, seeking him out day and night wherever he is. As in every conflict since World War I they are the eyes of our forces and without them our losses would be far greater and our efforts far less successful.
v. We were delighted at the warm reception we received from De Mille, who turned over to us the facilities of the Lasky’s Famous Players Corporation. We selected a spot in his laboratories which had dustproof clean dry air and special tanks and racks where we could hypersensitize our special aerial film.
vi. Theda Bara, a temperamental actress, insisted on having privacy during her love scenes. Her director was compelled to erect a heavy canvas screen around the set on which she was working. In time the screen was perforated with peepholes made with pencils, pocket knives, and a variety of other sharp implements.
vii. “The Mexicans are not about to let us come in and see for ourselves, so we’d like you to fly over and photograph the territory.” He tapped the map gently. “Think you can do it?” “I think we can do it, sir,” I said. “There’s a field at Yuma we can fly out of.” “Good. Now this is both secret and of high priority. How long do you expect it will take?” “We want a sixty percent overlap on the film strips,” the major put in quickly. “We don’t want to miss anything.”
viii. “You do the research, we’ll do the testing. It will cost you money in the beginning but you’ll make it up, and we’ll all end out on top.” Dr. Mees looked out the window a moment and then turned and smiled at me. “George,” he said, “you make it sound interesting.”
ยง Note Images 1-4 are of Colombia, and were taken by a private American remote sensing satellite in early 2013. Images 5-8 are of the Sea of Galilee, and were recorded by a C.I.A. CORONA satellite some time between 1967 and 1972. Text is from Overview: A lifelong adventure in aerial photography (1969) by George W. Goddard, Brigadier General, USAF (Ret.) and DeWitt S. Copp. ยง
Š Den Staf, 2014 100 copies printed in Bristol, uk /100 isbn: 978-1-804248-02-7 moot press