This pyramid-shaped Missile Site Control Building stands in the middle of the Stanley R. Mickelsen Safeguard Complex.

Built in the 1970s at a cost of US$5.7 billion (S$7.8 billion), the complex near the city of Langdon in North Dakota was the United States' first operational anti-ballistic missile defence site. It was designed to detect and intercept attacking nuclear warheads from Soviet missiles.

The facility was fully operational for only one day in October 1975 before the US Congress voted to shut it down.

This photograph is part of an exhibition, Most People Were Silent, which runs until Oct 10 at the Earl Lu Gallery at the Lasalle College of the Arts' Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore. The exhibition comprises a series of images of nuclear sites in North Korea and the US taken by award-winning documentary photographer Sim Chi Yin.

The 39-year-old Singaporean, who is the first Asian Nobel Peace Prize photographer, was asked to do an exhibition on last year's Peace Prize winner, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons civil society group. She decided to approach the topic by taking photos of nuclear sites.

The nuclear project is also on show at two solo exhibitions at the Nobel Peace Centre in Oslo until end-November and the Cortona On The Move photo festival in Italy until end-September.