The Meridian project is a series of large format black and white photographs taken in England
on the line of zero degrees longitude. Using GPS technology to establish accurate locations
Johnston took photographs on this line from coast to coast with the camera facing either due
north or due south. A vertical fluorescent orange line was then superimposed in the center of
the photographs to represent the line of zero degrees longitude. The addition of the line
transgresses the conventional purity of the photographic picture plane and makes visible that
which is invisible theoretical conceptual. This graphic intervention mirrors the way we
superimpose a rational grid over the globe mapping and regulating space and time to better
coordinate and facilitate international trade and navigation.Although a prime meridian was
established in the Greenwich Observatory in London in the late 18th century many other
countries used their own prime meridians causing much confusion and it wasnot until an
International Meridian Conference in 1884 that it was agreed that Greenwich would become the
global Prime Meridian. This cross-section portrait of a country also deals with the way in
which time is measured the Prime Meridian being the international dateline from which all
other time zones are calculated. Thus time and navigation are also subjects of the series. The
photographs depict the span of history from ancient churches to industrial buildings as well
as various forms of transportation by road rail and air and from barges to ocean vessels.
