How do you document a place that doesn't exist? In his new book Areth: An Architectural Atlas, photographer and writer Adam C. Ryder probes the line between science fiction and fine art. 

By rendering the Atlas as though it were a work of non-fiction, investigative literature, Ryder invites the viewer to consider Areth as a realized, if now empty, world. We see the planet and its history only by what it's left behind; the work comprises a series of architectural photographs, as well as accompanying text which identifies the structures pictured. The buildings are said to be research stations, residential dwellings, industrial centers--all serving functions recognizable to those of us reading over here on Earth. The photos document buildings recognizable as such, yet just alien enough to draw us into the fantasy. 

Even though this kind of work makes us want one, there's no disclaimer accompanying Areth. The illusion is unbroken. This is the work of researchers discovering an alien world. This is an atlas of a verifiable space.

The artificial presentation of real photographs alongside fabricated text forces a number of questions. Where are these photos from? Clearly they must be somewhere on earth to be photographs; perhaps they're subtle photomanipulations. But if they're straight photographs, why present them as alien ruins? Is it not enough to view them as representations of buildings on earth? 

Perhaps there's something to be learned from looking at images of our own planet as though it were another. Areth, after all, is not the most subtle of anagrams. We like to imagine what future archeologists will find in the dust of our present civilization. Will we look like Ancient Rome to them? What will they think of our computers, our cameras, our Xboxes? Will they dig up our houses? Our graves? Our bones? And what kind of downfall do we as a civilization face to be buried under layers of earth, discoverable only via high-tech dig sites? 

Ryder's Atlas considers all these concerns in an elegant, clean, and muted exploratory volume. The images and text are available online. You may also purchase a limited edition hardcover book of the work.