From 1959 to 1972, the United States
launched 144 covert satellites to monitor Communist nations. To focus and
calibrate those satellite cameras, 60-foot targets were built in a 16-mile grid
in Arizona’s Sonoran Desert. Here, Anand and Sauer photographed one remaining
target and digitally embedded the paths of all publicly known satellites crossing the site at the
moment of image capture. The contrast between the remnants of a secret Cold War
program and the surfeit of currently active satellites prompts uneasy questions
about the magnitude of covert surveillance in today’s world.