Shelf Unbound October/November 2013 October 2013 | Page 34

feature

photo essay

Dutch Landscapes by Mishka Henner

W

hen Google introduced its free satellite imagery service to the world in
2005, views of our planet only previously accessible to astronauts and surveyors were suddenly available to anyone with an Internet connection. Yet
the vistas revealed by this technology were not universally embraced.
Governments concerned about the sudden visibility of political, economic and military locations exerted considerable influence on suppliers of this imagery to censor
sites deemed vital to national security. This form of censorship continues today and
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