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

exaMINING the ICONIC aND reDISCOVerING the phOtOGraphY Of 287
SpaCe expLOratION IN CONtext tO the hIStOrY Of phOtOGraphY
spacefight might look like. 27 for example, bonestell’s photographic illustration
of “Saturn from the surface of its Moon titan” frst published in 1944 ofers an
imaginary vision of what the exploration of our solar system might produce. 28
With Saturn and a few of its other moons, its rings suspended in the background
and jagged mountains resting on an icy surface in the foreground, the sense of a
mysterious and alien world permeates the work. bonestell’s technical and aesthetic
process, however, was uniquely photographic. Like most of his illustrations,
“Saturn from the Surface of titan” was actually a carefully composed and
artifcially lit (to simulate the angle of the Sun) photograph of a model in which
the artist constructed a mountainous landscape and painted the backdrop of
Saturn, its rings, moons, and stars. aesthetically, the constructed mountains of
titan may very well have been infuenced by 19th century Western landscapes
like those of the pioneer photographer J. K. hillers.
hillers worked on the documentation of the unsettled West during the
powell Survey (1870-1879) for the U.S. Geological Survey. his photographs,
which often captured the monumental, depicted and celebrated geologic
formations like the Grand Canyon and Yosemite Valley. however, it is hillers’s
extensive documentation in arizona’s Canyon de Chelly that is likened most to
bonestell’s imagined landscape of Saturn’s moon titan. 29
the work of edward Curtis ofers a transition from the photography of
landscape to the inclusion of people and their habitats. Curtis’s documentation,
mostly during the frst quarter of the 20th century, is often attributed to be
among the most remarkable portrayal of Native americans and their customs
and habitats before emerging gentrifcation and containment on reservations.
his work is remarkable because of his ability to gain access to and trust of
his subjects, which resulted in a quality of photography that suggested the
subject’s inner life. Curtis worked with the complexity of the era’s photographic
technology and adapted it to his personal style, allowing him to connect with
and capture the humanity of his subjects and their sacred landscapes in alaska’s
Northwest, the Great plains and South West. along the way, he developed
a list of “twenty-fve cardinal points” which outlined the ethnographic and
anthropological details to accompany the captions in his photographs. 30
a few of Curtis’s landscape images can be compared to some of the
photographs beamed to earth from the surface of Mars by NaSa’s Viking Landers
(1976), pathfnder (1996), and most recently the Mars exploration rovers. the
27. a short list of other prominent illustrators of imagined space are robert McCall, pat rawlings,
ron Miller, and David a. hardy.
28. for a description of how bonestell made this iconic image, see http://www.bonestell.org/titan.html.
29. the online site of the U.S. Geological Survey ofers an impressive and comprehensive series of
photo galleries regarding their 19th century pioneer photographers, including O’Sullivan and
hillers, at http://libraryphoto.cr.usgs.gov/photo.htm.
30. alan porter,“the North american Indian” Camera 52, no. 12 (December 1973): 4, 13-14, 23-24.