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

exaMINING the ICONIC aND reDISCOVerING the phOtOGraphY Of 283
SpaCe expLOratION IN CONtext tO the hIStOrY Of phOtOGraphY
not the concrete event itself.” 19 as a result, the iconic images just cited and others
like them—however compelling and important as markers in the visual chronology
and history of space exploration—have become the symbolic reports.and as
symbolic reports, these photographs have been seen and experienced to the point
of being too familiar.they have been routinely published over the decades in academic
and scientifc journals, popular weekly and monthly magazines, newspapers
and magazine supplements, posters, online journals and reports, and any number
of photographically inspired books. as a result, these iconic photographs have
become predictable markers leaving the viewer with few surprises.
however, there are alternative editing possibilities to draw from the frst
50 years of space exploration photography. these alternatives lend themselves
to aesthetic considerations worthy of examination as I have attempted with
the iconic space exploration photographs already defned and discussed. If
the scope of space exploration photography is to mean anything beyond its
intended technical, scientifc, and utilitarian (day-to-day) reporting, there
needs to be an aesthetic framework for examining these photographs as well.
Given the accessibility to NaSa’s photographic archives—and hopefully in the
future from russian, former Soviet, Chinese, european, Indian, and Japanese
space agencies—it should be possible to reexplore the familiar and discover the
unfamiliar with history and aesthetics in mind.
IV. the aeSthetIC pOSSIbILItIeS Of
phOtOGraphIC DOCUMeNtatION
His (T. H. O’Sullivan) primary aim was not to philosophize about
nature, but to describe the terrain. The West was a place to span
with railroads, to dig for gold and silver, to graze cattle, or perhaps
sell groceries and whiskey. Occasionally—and remarkably—an
especially extravagant sample of spectacular landscape would be set
aside, sacrosanct, for the amazement of posterity, but this was neither
the frst function, nor the frst interest, of the Surveys. 20
In the last half of the 19th century, as the technology of photography
continued to evolve—the size of cameras, sensitivity of glass plate negatives to light,
and darkroom apparatus—it became less studio-dominated and more portable.
furthermore, photography’s apparent verisimilitude resulted in opportunities for
both american and european photographers to use the medium as a means of
19. William M. Ivins, Jr., Prints and Visual Communication (Cambridge, Ma: the MIt press,
1969), p. 180.
20. John Szarkowski, The Photographer and the American Landscape (New York, NY:the Museum of
Modern art, 1963), p. 3.