NEW YORK, NY.- Sarah Pickering’s “Explosions, Fires, and Public Order”, (Aperture, April 2010) is a visually arresting glimpse into the secret world of civil defense. Combining four series, the book begins with Public Order, a project exploring the Metropolitan Police Public Order Training Centre, a simulated urban environment near London where officers rehearse responses to imagined scenarios of civic unrest. Next, the Explosions series documents the tactical use of controlled explosions by the British military to add realistic stress to training exercises and familiarize soldiers with various munitions. Fire Series and Incident, Pickering’s most recent work, were produced while she was an artist in residence at the UK Fire Training College. While there she photographed blazes that were set inside meticulously and elaborately constructed home interiors as well as the stark, charred remnants of fake urban settings after the scenario fires had been put out.