Postcards from Voyager

Handmade folio containing 13 postcards, 1 accordion panorama print & 1 companion text, housed within a custom-made folder

Concept, Design, Printing, & Construction by Lisa McCarty

Images selected by the artist from the Voyager Spacecraft Archives, via NASA’s Planetary Data System OPUS search service

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Size: 9.5 x 5.75 inch folder | 5.5 in x 5.5 inch postcards

Risograph Printing: RISO MZ790 using Black and Mist inks

Paper: French Paper, Construction Blacktop, 80 lb Cover

Edition of 12 made while in residence at Directangle Press

ABOUT THE VOYAGER PLANETARY MISSION

The photographs in this folio are a small sampling from the Voyager spacecraft archives. Launched by NASA in 1977, Voyagers 1 and 2 were originally sent on a mission to conduct close-up studies of Jupiter and Saturn. Given the volatile conditions of deep space, the spacecrafts were originally expected to last five years. 47 years later, the Voyagers are still traveling and have made over 76,000 photographs. They’ve documented Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, and Uranus, 48 of their moons, as well as their rings and magnetic fields. According to NASA, images and data from the Voyagers have “revolutionized the science of planetary astronomy, helping to resolve key questions while raising intriguing new ones about the origin and evolution of the planets in our solar system.”

ABOUT THE FOLIO

The Voyagers’ full archive is vast, but difficult to find and navigate. While the archive is public, I doubt many non-scientists get to see these strange and beautiful visions of our closest neighbors. With this in mind, I decided to reimagine Voyagers’ dispatches as postcards – small prints designed to be held, admired, and circulated.

My selection of fourteen images in this first set shows the wide range of photographic information Voyager was able to capture in extraordinary conditions. Millions of miles away, under intense radiation, in extremely low light conditions, and using 20th century imaging technology, Voyagers’ visions are precarious and revelatory. For me, the images provide a glimpse into our cosmic neighborhood and a pathway to wonder about the community we are a part of beyond Earth. They demonstrate the limits and possibilities of what we can see and know. They express our collective desire to keep looking, to keep searching, and to keep learning about our place in the universe.