The Secret City: Abandoned and Re-exposed, 2025 - 2026

All told, the military left behind about 10,000 tons of physical waste in the ice sheet at Camp Century alone.…No one gave much thought to what would happen when the waste got to the glacier’s bed – nor did anyone seriously consider climate change and the possibility that the ice sheet might melt away, daylighting all of the waste.” - Paul Bierman, When the Ice is Gone

Camp Century was a military base constructed under the Greenland Ice Sheet by the US Army in 1959. Its purpose was to better understand living and working conditions in the Arctic during the Cold War. The most significant achievement occurred after six years of equipment malfunction: scientists drilled the world’s first deep ice core (4650’), reaching the permacrete in 1966.

 The US abandoned Camp Century in 1967. The nuclear reactor which had powered it was removed beforehand and decommissioned at the Idaho Nuclear Laboratory, a four-hour drive from my hometown. Snow reburied what the media dubbed “The Secret City,” and each year it has been shifting 14’ to the southwest. In April 2024, NASA rediscovered Camp Century by radar and it was seen for the first time since it disappeared in 1969. Scientists estimate that the camp’s iced-crushed remains will emerge in 65 years, and along with it, nuclear waste, sewage, and graywater. This is quickly becoming the present’s environmental problem.

 In The Secret City: Abandoned and Re-exposed, I sourced found objects from the 1960s, visualizing items that will appear when the ice recedes. They reflect the daily life of the 200 men inhabiting the camp’s 25 different rooms including the library, infirmary, bar, chapel, hobby shop, darkroom, and kitchen. They are reminders of what made living in an adverse condition “home.” Additionally, I made screen captures from declassified video footage depicting nuclear activity, signage, and the boring and destruction of ice cores. The images shift from the familiar to the chilling. All are suspended in ice and documented in various stages of thaw. [Sixteen of the thirty-four images are seen below.]

The US has a history of depleting land of its resources and burying the issues of the past for future generations to resolve. What is hidden rarely remains invisible. When the ice recedes, what re-emerges will not look like the content of my photographs. It will be warped, rusted, and decayed while I portray everything as if it were discarded yesterday. This stillness preserves a moment on the precipice of change indicating there is time to act.        

The Secret City… draws our attention to actions that occurred in Greenland in the past and acknowledges the US’s role in this potential catastrophe. It suggests taking responsibility rather than manufacturing new ecological and political problems.