Sometimes even eavesdropping experts prefer to have their mobile phones turned off. There’s a place in the woods of West Virginia where there’s no reception at all. Absolutely nothing that can transmit or receive is allowed there, including radios and remote controls. Police check rigorously, driving around with radio detectors. It’s known as the National Radio Quiet Zone, and it houses a facility run by the NSA that mostly collects earthly signals from outer space.

Artist Trevor Paglen knows that astronauts are really there waiting to receive news from aliens, but he also knows that it’s not the whole story. So one night in 2010, Paglen—tall, athletic, and in his late thirties—drove as close as possible to the zone, where he climbed to the top of a mountain to identify what the large, no-reception complex seals off. And when the moonlight was most beautiful, Paglen took a picture using the strongest microscope camera. Read more...