“Not now.”

That was the reply to photographer David Maisel’s 2004 request to document Dugway Proving Ground. Rather than interpret the response as a dodge or definitive “no,” Maisel was was heartened, and began a decade of carefully-phrased communication with contacts in and outside of the Department of Defense, intensive vetting and, finally, permission to photograph a military installation so closely guarded that all but a few both in and outside the state of Utah know what goes on there.

Proving Ground, Maisel’s latest installment in a career-long photographic examination of the landscape, up through Feb 24th, 2018 at Haines Gallery in San Francisco reaffirms that the answers we seek through access are often incomplete.

Exhibition review by Roula Seikaly