Roland Miller: Orbital Planes: A Personal Vision of the Space Shuttle

Description

Orbital Planes: A Personal Vision of the Space Shuttle is Roland Miller's intimate photographic view of the Space Shuttle Program. A unique collection of imagery, the book explores the Space Shuttle orbiters-both inside and out-along with related facilities including rocket engine test sites, Solid Rocket Booster and External Tank manufacturing facilities, orbiter manufacturing and maintenance facilities, launch sites, and more. Miller photographed the Space Shuttle starting in 1988. He began his focused work for Orbital Planes in 2008 and continued for the duration of the Space Shuttle Program through the decommissioning of the orbiters. Orbital Planes is part artistic invention, part space archaeology, and part historic documentation. Through a combination of documentary and abstract photographs made around the United States, Orbital Planes tells an expansive story of the Space Shuttle Program in a visually arresting style. Detailed imagery describes the distinctive design and engineering of these spacecraft and the facilities where they were maintained and launched. The drama and danger of spaceflight are seen in the wear and tear visible on the Space Shuttle orbiters. The book also chronicles the story of Miller's interactions with Space Shuttle workers and the impacts of the Challenger and Columbia accidents.

Roland Miller, a Chicago native, taught photography at Brevard Community College in Cocoa, Florida for 14 years, where he began photographing nearby NASA launch sites. After serving as the dean of Communication Arts, Humanities, and Fine Arts at the College of Lake County in Grayslake, Illinois for ten years, he retired in 2018 to work full-time on his photography. Miller's project and book, Abandoned in Place: Preserving America's Space History (University of New Mexico Press, 2016), documents deactivated and repurposed space launch and test facilities around the United States. Miller's collaborative project and book, Interior Space: A Visual Exploration of the International Space Station (Damiani Editore, 2020) with Italian Astronaut, Paolo Nespoli, documents and examines the interior of the International Space Station. His photographs are part of permanent collections at the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, Illinois and the NASA Art Collection in Washington, DC. Miller's photography has been exhibited in major art and science museums, including the Galleria del Cembalo, Rome, Italy. His work has been featured in major publications including: The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and National Geographic UK.