Blue Sky Days solo exhibition 15 July to 6 September, 2015
Opening and artist talk 15 July at 19:00
Arts Santa Monica
La Rambla 7, 08002 Barcelona
Catalonia
Spain
Tel. +34 93 5671110
Open to the public from Tuesday to Saturday, from 11:00 to 21:00. Open on Sundays and blank holidays, from 11:00 to 21:00.
In October 2012, a drone strike in northeast Pakistan killed a 67-year-old woman picking okra outside her house. At a briefing held in 2013 in Washington, DC, the woman’s 13-year-old grandson, Zubair Rehman, spoke to a group of five lawmakers. “I no longer love blue skies,” said Rehman, who was injured by shrapnel in the attack. “In fact, I now prefer grey skies. The drones do not fly when the skies are grey.”
With my camera attached to a small drone, I traveled across America to photograph the very sorts of gatherings that have become habitual targets for foreign air strikes—weddings, funerals and groups of people praying or exercising. I also flew my camera over settings in which drones are used to less lethal effect, such as prisons, oil fields, and the US-Mexico border. The images captured from the drone’s perspective engage with the changing nature of surveillance, personal privacy and war.