With this series, Nelson intervenes in the very logic of photography. The images consist in black-and-white compositions imprinted on silver gelatin foundations. The geometric shapes derive from elements of dismantled photographic equipment. For brief moments, these machine parts are exposed to light in the dark room. The resulting black shapes are marks of those areas masked by equipment, while the white fields are those met directly by light. Rather than capturing any external scene, the forms are carried only by the technologies and processes involved in the making of photography. The title alludes to a Soviet monument erected in Moscow in 1964 in memory of the first cosmonauts—an ensemble in the shape of three-dimensional upwards pointing planes conjointly evoking the skyward movement of a rocket or the tail of a comet. With these works, Nelson alludes both to the sci-fi-like endeavors of space travel, and to the utopian modernist legacy of concretism. Monuments to the Conquerors of Space has taken multiple forms including a site-specific installation at Sadie Halie Projects in Minneapolis MN, a limited edition sculptural book, and a risograph printed publication both published by Small Editions, New York, NY.