Remembering the Space Age. - Black Vault Radio Network (BVRN)

272 reMeMberING the SpaCe aGe
black-and-white image published over and over in various print media venues
that, over the last fve decades, has become a convincing visual report on the
american efort to compete with the Soviets who already had two satellites in
earth-orbit. the Vanguard image is one of many now-familiar images that
visually communicate the early days of the Space age. as a result, it can be
argued that this photograph has become iconic in the sense that it is a recognizable
image whose familiarity is framed both by its historic relevance and its repeated
publication in chronicling the frst 50 years of space exploration.
In my process of rediscovering the iconic within these frst 50 years of
space exploration photography, I will frst identify those images that I consider
to be iconic, including the Vanguard launch explosion. thereafter, I will discuss
these photographs within the context of the history of photography, looking at
both their technical evolution as record-keeping tools and their aesthetic appeal
and importance as historic markers of american culture and beyond. Once
this historical framework is established, I will move beyond the known iconic
imagery to the emergence of other imagery. and why not consider new imagery?
aren’t there other photographs beyond that one iconic photograph—the new
and largely undiscovered photograph that tells the same story of an event? In
fact, that new photograph may even ofer a fresh perspective on the event. I
will then critique these new and emerging photographs and juxtapose them
to aesthetic markers in the history of photography, drawing from landscape,
portraiture, documentation, photojournalism and fne art photography.
II. beGINNINGS
On a January night in 1958, not even 60 days after the Vanguard’s explosive
entrée, the U.S. army launched its Jupiter-C version of the redstone rocket,
introducing the frst successful orbiting of an american satellite: explorer 1.
this event was historically signifcant for both space science and photography
because it created a new and emerging iconographic image: the launching of a
rocket thrusting into space. In addition, the postfight news conference was
memorialized in a photograph of the jubilant Wernher Von braun, William
pickering, and James Van allen holding a model of america’s frst satellite over
their heads. 3 the photographs of Vanguard One, explorer 1, and the postfight
press conference were products of a distinctly american culture. With the
Soviets not providing any immediate photographic evidence of their similar
events, the american print media had ushered in a new photographic genre:
space exploration photography. these photographs would be repeated again and
again in both the print and electronic media for the next fve decades. Moreover,
images of a rocket explosion, a rocket launch and the people behind the scenes
3. the photographer of this image is unknown, according to erik M. Conway, the historian at the
Jet propulsion Laboratory.