Snapshots from the moon: NASA photographs from the earliest manned space flights
NASA’s Apollo program landed the first humans on the moon in 1969. In the next three years, Apollo sent 10 more men to the moon in five subsequent missions. The first moon landing in particular is a legendarily well-documented event, representing one of those rare moments in which the world was united in awe, witnessing the feat together on their television screens. But each Apollo mission also generated hundreds of photographs, many of which have only recently been released by NASA. A selection of these images--shot by the astronauts themselves with suit-mounted and handheld Hasselblad cameras--are gathered in this beautifully designed, affordable volume.
Many of the photographs, though shot originally for scientific, documentary purposes, have an extraordinary snapshot quality, boasting inadvertently artful compositions and effects: in one, a pair of astronaut’s legs emerges upside down from the bottom of the frame; in another, a striding astronaut appears to glow against the black recesses of space.
Contextualized with background information about the Apollo Missions and the role of photographic documentation in them, the photographs in The Moon 1968–1972 are fascinating documents of the majesty of outer space, but also record the surface of the moon as a landscape of wonder. This is the moon of which E.B. White wrote in the July 1969 issue of The New Yorker: “The moon, it turns out, is a great place for men. One-sixth gravity must be a lot of fun, and when Armstrong and Aldrin went into their bouncy little dance, like two happy children, it was a moment not only of triumph but of gaity.”
Industry Reviews
The 1969 moon landing and the five more missions in the years that followed generated hundreds of photographs taken by the astronauts themselves. Photographs from every Apollo mission offer a glimpse not only of the historical moment when man first set foot on the lunar landscape, but of stunning compositions of space and the unknown. * Artdesk *
Less famous images: accidental double exposures, messy takes of experiment sites and off-kilter photos of horizon lines...And the less iconic b-roll just adds to the narrative of ever expansive space. -- Su Wu * The New York Times *
An eerily placid and provocative little book, featuring stark but spectacular photos from NASA's Apollo archives that juxtapose sight-seeing, science and the sublime. -- Marvin Heiferman * Time, Best Photobooks of 2016 *
...evokes the rich mixture of emotion, yearning and speculation that have long surrounded Earth's mysterious companion and neighbor...this slim, elegant volume also serves as a bittersweet reminder of a time when, despite the tensions of the Cold War - and, in part, thanks to the motivations they engendered - Americans still dared to dream big, sharing a collective spirit of awe over the historic achievements of an innovative, ambitious, tax-supported space program. -- Edward M. Gomez * Hyperallergic *
The Moon 1968-1972, a... provocative little book, features a selection of otherworldly images from NASA's archives that juxtaposes the sublime with sightseeing, pits philosophical and propagandistic readings against documentary ones, and contrasts the moon's eerily laid and articulated surface with the stark blankness of outer space. -- Marvin Heiferman * Photobook Review *
At a time when archival images are often hastily assembled into digital galleries that get passed around briefly on social media, it's especially satisfying to sit with an affordable ($18), carefully edited, designed and printed archive of photographs of historical significance and esthetic value. * Photo District News *
