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Sarah Pickering: Explosions, Fires, and Public Order

Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Sarah Pickering's Explosions, Fires, and Public Order offers a striking visual journey into the covert world of civil defence. The book features four interlinked series, starting with an inside look at the Metropolitan Police Public Order Training Centre near London, where officers prepare for urban unrest through realistic simulations. It then captures the British military's use of controlled explosions in training exercises, providing soldiers with vital familiarity with various munitions. The final two series, created during Pickering's residency at the UK Fire Training College, showcase elaborate staged fires inside constructed domestic and urban environments, highlighting both the fiery scenes and their aftermath. Through these projects, Pickering probes themes of imagined threats, fear, and the balance between fact and fiction amid a climate of global tension.
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Format: Hardback
$6999
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

This book will appeal to readers interested in contemporary photography, visual arts, and the intersection of art with themes of security, civil defence, and societal anxiety. It suits those drawn to thought-provoking, documentary-style work that blends reality and imagination.

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Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

UK photographer Sarah Pickering's Explosions, Fires and Public Order is a visually arresting glimpse into the secret world of civil defence. Combining four series, the book begins with "Public Order," a project exploring the Metropolitan Police Public Order Training Centre, a simulated urban environment near London where officers rehearse responses to imagined scenarios of civic unrest.

The "Explosions" series documents the tactical use of controlled explosions by the British military, designed to add realistic stress to training exercises and familiarise soldiers with various munitions. "Fire Series" and "Incident," Pickering's most recent series, were produced while she was an artist in residence at the UK Fire Training College. While there, she photographed blazes that were set inside meticulously and elaborately constructed home interiors, as well as the stark, charred remnants of fake urban settings after the scenario fires had been put out.

Pickering's projects reflect an aspect of the current zeitgeist: global terrorism matched with omnipresent anxiety. "My work explores the idea of imagined threat and response, and looks at fear and planning for the unexpected, merging fact and fiction, fantasy and reality."

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781597111232

Publisher: Aperture

Format: Hardback

Date Published: 15 March 2010

Country: United States

Imprint: Aperture

Illustration: Illustrations

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Weight: 900g

Pages: 123

About the Author

Sarah Pickering finished her MA in photography at the Royal College of Art, London, in 2005. She is the recipient of several awards, including the Photographers' Gallery Graduate Award and a Jerwood Award. She has exhibited internationally and within the UK, where her work was part of How We Are: Photographing Britain, at Tate Britain. Karen Irvine is the curator of the Museum of Contemporary Photography and a part-time instructor of photography at Columbia College Chicago. She has organized numerous exhibitions, including Paul Shambroom: Evidence of Democracy and Alec Soth: Sleeping by the Mississippi, and is the author of books on Dave Jordano, Anthony Goicolea, and Laura Letinsky.

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