Extraordinary Planetary Landscapes Captured In Photography Exhibit

This otherworldly view, collected during 40 years of robotic space missions and then processed into breathtaking images, is the subject of the new Smithsonian traveling exhibition "Beyond: Visions of Planetary Landscapes." The exhibit paints a rarely seen and mesmerizing portrait of our solar system's diverse worlds and their moons.

Featuring 35 large-scale (ranging from 3 feet to 5 feet in width) framed prints containing 59 individual photographs, all digitally processed by artist Michael Benson, the exhibition debuts March 9, 2008 at the Monmouth Museum in Lincroft, N.J. "Beyond" will remain on view through May 4 and then continue on a national tour through 2010, traveling to cities such as Tucson, Ariz.; Cleveland; Lynchburg, Va.; Worchester, Mass.; Montezuma, Kan.; Santa Barbara, Calif.; and Chicago.

The exhibit's astonishing views of the solar system's planets and their moons come primarily from NASA and European Space Agency missions. Benson mines planetary databases for his source material; then, using various techniques, including a mosaic or collage process, he pulls together the images to create seamless photographs of unprecedented clarity and realism. Throughout the process, Benson strives to stay true to the natural and breathtaking reality of space.

"My goal was to locate, digitally process and print some of the most extraordinary sights ever captured," Benson said. "I view the photographic legacy of these missions as being a chapter in the history of photography."

While humans have not set foot on any other planet and have not visited any satellite except Earth's moon, robot creations have traveled to nearly every planet in the solar system, even landing on such varied surfaces as those of Mars, Venus and Saturn's moon Titan. Through the photographs and data these probes send back to Earth, viewers can soar to the borderlands of the solar system without leaving the safety and comfort of this planet.

"Beyond" shows that familiar geological formations and the atmospheric disturbances that take place on Earth also can be found on neighboring planets: the erupting volcanoes of Sicily find their counterpart in the lava eruptions of Jupiter's moon Io; the moon's deep craters are displayed alongside the "cantaloupe" terrain of Neptune's moon Triton; the stormy clouds of Greenland can be seen alongside the "dust devils" of Mars.

"Beyond: Visions of Planetary Landscapes" was created by Michael Benson and organized for travel by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES). The exhibition is accompanied by Benson's award-winning book "Beyond: Visions of the Interplanetary Probes" (Abrams, 2003), which includes a forward by science-fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke. The book will be released in spring 2008.

Michael Benson is a journalist and award-winning filmmaker ("Predictions of Fire," 1995). His journalism has been published in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Atlantic and The Washington Post, among many other publications. He recently relocated from Ljubljana, Slovenia, to New York City. -- www.si.edu