This article was taken from the June 2014 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online
When Portuguese photographer Edgar Martins sent an email to the European Space Agency (ESA) asking for more access for artists, he never expected the reply he received. The agency flung open its doors, and he became the first photographer to have access to its facilities. Over 18 months, Martins photographed space simulations, launch platforms, life-support systems, training modules and astronaut clothing in 20 ESA labs around the world. "Images of space are inextricably linked with pop culture -- the photos I took remind me of Doctor Who and Stargate SG-1," says Martins, 37. "One photo I took, of a shard of Moon rock inside a prism of resin, was a complete throwback to the cover of Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon." The images shown here, taken against a canary-yellow reminiscent of spacecraft walls, were shot at the Material and Components lab at the European Space Research and Technology Centre near Amsterdam. "It's where they break up materials that have gone to space or are going to space, the stuff that makes up all the engineering components, and test their structural integrity," says Martins. Using a vintage large-plate camera, he managed to get up close -- "Its bellows control the focus; if you stretch the bellows, then you can enlarge an object significantly. I extended the bellows as much as I could, and my camera became a microscope."
Martin's survey of ESA's work is shown in the book The Rehearsal of Space & the Poetic Impossibility to Manage the Infinite (The Mothhouse), and in an exhibition opening in London on April 25 at The Wapping Project Bankside. It tours Brazil, Japan, the US and Europe until 2018.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
