What Do You Hear In Your Head When You Think Of...
MOUNTAIN RANGES?
VEGETATION?
ROADS?
“Portrait U.S.A.” is the first color satellite photomosaic of the 48 contiguous United States. It was featured in the National Geographic Magazine’s U.S. bicentennial issue in July 1976 as a large fold-out map. Made up of 569 photos taken from space by the NASA Landsat satellite, it served as a pivotal step in seeing (and understanding) the land we inhabit as Americans.
A Little Background...
The process involved a lot of photographic image processing to turn the Landsat data into photographic prints and then careful mosaicking them by hand. Using the single band (black and white) Landsat 1 images, the aerial photo lab at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Soil Conservation Service Cartographic Division created the first image, which is pictured below. Then, a more ambitious color (RGB composite) mosaic was created by General Electric’s Beltsville Photographic Engineering Laboratory in 1976, which coined the name “Portrait U.S.A.” and is the image featured on the cover of the album.
© NASA
Each photo in the mosaic is made up of four separate photos of different parts of the light spectrum: green, red, and two different infra-red regions. These light regions were chosen because they help bring out the differences in geographical forms and types of vegetation.
​
Green and dark green are vegetation. Rocks and soil appear as white, yellow, and brown. Towns, roads, and water appear as black.
The Connection...
The practical applications of the Landsat photos are many. Some of which are regional planning and assessment of land use: which crops are being grown where, mapping and detection of air and water pollution, and monitoring surface mining and the effects of deforestation. In essence, the images were mainly used by mapmakers, geologists, and scientists to understand changes in land formation, through time, by humans.
The practical applications of the “Audio Portrait U.S.A.” are also many. Mainly, it is meant to provide listeners with musical atmospheres to match the soundscapes of the different visual geographical forms of the United States. It is a chance for America to listen, and listen to America. The “Audio Portrait U.S.A.” takes the information from this monumental historical image and translates it into audio.
Artist and multi-instrumentalist, Tyler Suarez created ambient musical tracks that correspond to the colors of the map. These tracks, then, serve as a soundtrack to the entire country, transformed from a visual to an auditory form.