When you have an economically unequal society, you end up with huge swaths of society that are disposable, basically.
Trevor PaglenFor a time, people were getting arrested for photographing the Brooklyn Bridge. So to me, what it meant to do photography also changed. There was a new kind of politics to it - something that was very aggressive and dangerous - and a presumption that it would reveal some kind of truth or evidence.
Trevor PaglenTo go and photograph an airbase is not only to photograph something but it is to insist on oneโs right to photograph. Youโre flexing that right.
Trevor PaglenI'm pretty cynical about the future, but I feel like that's not an ethical position for me to take. It's not okay for me to behave as if I'm cynical about the future. Even if I am.
Trevor Paglen