Above Us The Day

© Robert Ormerod - Image from the Above Us The Day photography project © Robert Ormerod - Image from the Above Us The Day photography project © Robert Ormerod - Image from the Above Us The Day photography project View all images ↓
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  • Dates
    2016 - Ongoing
  • Author
  • Locations United States, United Kingdom, Chile, South Africa, Oman
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Every child has dreamt of becoming an astronaut but space travel is only accessible to a tiny minority. So how does the average person fulfil this desire to explore the stars, this existential need to reach up?

I have always been both excited and terrified of the vast expanse above us all. Outer space provokes a different emotional response in all of us: existential wonder, fear, scientific curiosity, disinterest and sometimes a deep-seated psychological response to the unknown. For the last 10 years I have been photographing how ordinary people respond to outer space: mars simulations in Utah and Oman; amateur rocketry festivals in the Black Rock desert; aurora hunters in Iceland; SETI in Pennsylvania, meteor hunters in Morocco; UFO mythology in Roswell New Mexico; Crop circles tourists in Wiltshire, UK; Space Camp for the blind and partially sighted; amateur telescope building in South Africa and some of the biggest telescopes on earth in the Atacama desert. I have investigated the social groups which have formed around space exploration.  This body of work explores the blurred line between reality and fantasy and the existential human need to explore how we fit into the universe.

© Robert Ormerod - Image from the Above Us The Day photography project
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The night sky glimpsed through the Vermont forest which is lit by red head torches used to preserve night vision in order to view the night sky. Every year astronomy enthusiasts from across the United States and further afield gather on a hilltop outside Springfield Vermont for Stellafane- the oldest “star party” in the US and one of the oldest in the world.

© Robert Ormerod - Image from the Above Us The Day photography project
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I travelled to Oman to photograph a "Mars Analogue", a location on Earth possessing geological, or environmental, characteristics that closely mirror those found on Mars. These sites are used to simulate manned missions to the red planet. Here a member of the simulation crew uses a hand to shield her eyes from the bright desert sun inside a inflatable dome used to conduct various experiments

© Robert Ormerod - Image from the Above Us The Day photography project
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Jake, 13 and Leif, 16 pose for a portrait as the sun dips below the horizon at "Balls high powered rocket festival in the Black Rock Desert.

© Robert Ormerod - Image from the Above Us The Day photography project
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A metallic rocket at the ROCStock festival, Lucerne Valley in the southern Mojave Desert. The amateur rocketry festival, organised by the Rocketry Organisation of California takes place every November in the, western San Bernardino County, California.

© Robert Ormerod - Image from the Above Us The Day photography project
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A rocket capsule at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama, a museum showcasing rockets, achievements, and artifacts of the U.S. space program

© Robert Ormerod - Image from the Above Us The Day photography project
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On the last night of the Balls rocket festival enthusiasts celebrate by burning old rocket motors. The fire is so bright that it not only lights up the night with this pink hue but it also can burn camera sensors and damage eye site.

© Robert Ormerod - Image from the Above Us The Day photography project
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A rocket streaks into the night's sky as spectators look on at the ROCStock festival, Lucerne Valley in the southern Mojave Desert. The amateur rocketry festival, organised by the Rocketry Organisation of California takes place every November in the, western San Bernardino County,

© Robert Ormerod - Image from the Above Us The Day photography project
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Rita and Jurg Wagener at their home in Sutherland, South Africa. They Started stargazing 10 years ago and now run a nightly tour of the night sky for visitors who visit from all over the world to experience the dark skies over the Karoo desert

© Robert Ormerod - Craters mark the moon surface photographed using a celestron telescope, in Sutherland South Africa
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Craters mark the moon surface photographed using a celestron telescope, in Sutherland South Africa

© Robert Ormerod - Image from the Above Us The Day photography project
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a young girl searches for a planet through a telescope in the early evening light at Scope X, the biggest amateur telescope making and science out-reach festival in Africa, which takes place every year in Johannesberg, SA

© Robert Ormerod - A view of the night sky above Sutherland, South Africa
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A view of the night sky above Sutherland, South Africa

© Robert Ormerod - Image from the Above Us The Day photography project
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A UFO mural advertises Jerky on Nevada State Route 375. The top-secret Area 51 government base is near SR 375 and many travellers have reported UFO observations and other strange alien activity along this road. Such stories prompted the state to officially designate the route as the Extraterrestrial Highway in 1996

© Robert Ormerod - Simulation crew member Florian Voggeneder stands for a portrait at dusk, during a Mars Simulation in Oman
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Simulation crew member Florian Voggeneder stands for a portrait at dusk, during a Mars Simulation in Oman

© Robert Ormerod - Image from the Above Us The Day photography project
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The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array is an astronomical radio telescopes in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile, which observe electromagnetic radiation in space

© Robert Ormerod - Image from the Above Us The Day photography project
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The historic Stellafane clubhouse under the night's sky. Every year astronomy enthusiasts from across the United States and further afield gather on a hilltop outside Springfield Vermont for Stellafane- the oldest “star party” in the US and one of the oldest in the world.For two days and three nights amateur astronomers attend workshops on telescope making, compete in the “observing olympics” an

© Robert Ormerod - Image from the Above Us The Day photography project
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Space camp attendees walk under The Space Shuttle Orbiter Pathfinder in Huntsville Alabama. The Pathfinder is a Space Shuttle test simulator made of steel and wood, constructed by NASA in 1977 as a test article.

© Robert Ormerod - Image from the Above Us The Day photography project
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Joe Bergeron, 63, Space artist and author from Endwell New York, sports a space themed shirt. Every year astronomy enthusiasts from across the United States and further afield gather on a hilltop outside Springfield Vermont for Stellafane- the oldest “star party” in the US and one of the oldest in the world.

© Robert Ormerod - Image from the Above Us The Day photography project
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Egged on by his friends, Grant Thompson from Utahstruggles to lift a rocket before posing for a photograph during the Balls high powered rocketry festival in the Black Rock desert

© Robert Ormerod - Image from the Above Us The Day photography project
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A boy on top of an RV gazes upward, following the snaking contrail of another launch, druing the Balls rocketry festival in the Black Rock desert

© Robert Ormerod - Image from the Above Us The Day photography project
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A member of a simulation team from The International Space University in Strasbourg strides out into the Utah desert. During the summer months many teams live and work at the Mars Desert Research Station. The terrain’s ferrous-red hue and the harshness of the climate are used to mimic Mars’s. Each crew carries out experiments ranging from astrobiology and meteorite analysis to 3D-printing.