Rocketmen

A long-term project to define an iconography of misdirected sexual energy.

It’s a scene that could have been lifted straight from the set of Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 cinematic classic Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. Gleaming in gelatin silver, five US Army men, decorations hanging from the breast pockets, stare knowingly (longingly?) at a large model rocket, with the text ‘UNITED STATES’ printed vertically along its white shaft. How can a single image, taken for press purposes (we assume) hold so much innuendo? Peter Voigt dubs these subjects, charmingly, “Rocketmen”.

  1. U.S. Air force Photo, Space Systems Division
    Printed in 1962
    Vintage Silver gelatin print
    20 x 25 cm
    Stamped and numbered

    All rights reserved. 2024 Strangelove Collection
  2. It’s a scene that could have been lifted straight from the set of Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 cinematic classic Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. Gleaming in gelatin silver, five US Army men, decorations hanging from the breast pockets, stare knowingly (longingly?) at a large model rocket, with the text ‘UNITED STATES’ printed vertically along its white shaft. How can a single image, taken for press purposes (we assume) hold so much innuendo? Peter Voigt dubs these subjects, charmingly, “Rocketmen”.

  3. U.S. Army
    Printed in 1963
    Vintage Silver gelatin print
    20 x 25 cm
    Stamped and numbered

    All rights reserved. 2024 Strangelove Collection
  4. U.S. Army
    Printed in 1963
    Vintage Silver gelatin print
    20 x 25 cm
    Stamped and numbered
    Nike-Zeus Missile Firing

    All rights reserved. 2024 Strangelove Collection
  5. U.S. Army Photograph
    Printed in 1957
    Vintage Silver gelatin print
    13 x 18 cm
    Stamped and numbered
    Fort Carson, Signal Corps Photo Lab

    All rights reserved. 2024 Strangelove Collection
  6. Press Photp
    Printed in 1958
    Vintage Silver gelatin print
    20 x 25 cm
    Stamped and caption
    Missile experts study a Bomarc-missile model.

    All rights reserved. 2024 Strangelove Collection
  7. General Dynamics Corporation
    Printed in 1958
    Vintage Silver gelatin print
    20 x 25 cm
    Stamped and numbered
    Demonstrating how Centaur separates from its booster.

    All rights reserved. 2024 Strangelove Collection
  8. A.P. wirephoto
    Printed in 1962
    Vintage Silver gelatin print
    20 x 25 cm
    Stamped and caption
    One space-committee aide said, the prospect of woman in space presented a galaxy of new problems.

    All rights reserved. 2024 Strangelove Collection
  9. U.S. Naval Ordnance Laboratory
    Printed in 1950
    Vintage Silver gelatin print
    20 x 25 cm
    Stamped and caption
    Weapons of tomorrow

    All rights reserved. 2024 Strangelove Collection
  10. Central Press Association
    Printed in 1958
    Vintage Silver gelatin print
    20 x 25 cm
    Stamped and caption
    The National Space Administration has taken a penny-pinching approach to the international space race.

    All rights reserved. 2024 Strangelove Collection
  11. Press Photo
    Printed in 1963
    Vintage Silver gelatin print
    20 x 25 cm
    Stamped and caption
    Chief of communications satellite program is holding a rocket model at the home of his parents.

    All rights reserved. 2024 Strangelove Collection
  12. U.S. Air Force Photo
    Printed in 1961
    Vintage Silver gelatin print
    20 x 25 cm
    Stamped and caption
    Erection of Atlas-Mercury

    All rights reserved. 2024 Strangelove Collection
  13. U.S. Air Force
    Printed in 1959
    Vintage Silver gelatin print
    20 x 25 cm

    Atlas Missile

    All rights reserved. 2024 Strangelove Collection
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