From the Trinity Site series of 11 photographs

Dimensions of works in the series vary: 18" x 13.5" through 48" x 64"

Text from the exhibition TEN MILLION DEGREES:

From 2006-2008, Valdes visited the Trinity Test Site in New Mexico on the two days of the year it is open to the public. In the photographs, “Zero,” “Provenance,” and “Vestiges,” she exposes the ‘radioactive’ landscape and explores notions of place, memory and history in this highly charged and emotional site of America’s past.

“Zero” is a photograph of a structure situated directly next to Ground Zero where the Trinity Test was conducted. This shelter protects a portion of the original crater created by the blast. Valdes complicates the image by enhancing the colors, imbuing the subject with an imagined radioactivity. This move from actual to imagined puts into question our expectations and collective vision of what this site means.