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

exaMINING the ICONIC aND reDISCOVerING the phOtOGraphY Of 299
SpaCe expLOratION IN CONtext tO the hIStOrY Of phOtOGraphY
One of the frst snapshots taken in Earth orbit by John Glenn: February 20, 1962.
(NASA)
this brings us to what I would call the snapshot aesthetic in space exploration
photography. In examining the snapshot aesthetic, I cannot ignore the photography
of astronauts in-fight by the astronaut themselves. Consider John Glenn on the
eve of america’s frst manned orbital mission in 1962. John Glenn went out to
buy an ansco autoset 35 mm handheld camera (with a 55 mm lens) from a local
store in Cocoa beach. 40 With out formal photographic training, Glenn bought this
modest camera because no one in the program at that time foresaw the necessity
of an astronaut taking pictures. Glenn took the ansco autoset on board Ma6.this
resulted in a series of 48 snapshots of earth taken from the window of his Mercury
space capsule. 41 from Glenn’s eforts and the resulting images, it can be argued that
Glenn was the frst human to record and take iconic snapshots in space.
40. Gary h. Kitmacher, “astronaut Still photography During apollo,” (Washington, DC:
National aeronautics and Space administration), http://history.nasa.gov/apollo_photo.html
(accessed March 6, 2008).
41. See John L. Kaltenbach, “a table and reference List Documenting Observations of earth
from Manned earth Orbital and Suborbital Spacefight Missions Including the Unmanned
apollo-Saturn 4 and 6 Missions” (houston,tx, National aeronautics and Space administration
Lyndon b. Johnson Space Center, December 1976), http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/sseop/metadata/Apollo­
Saturn_4-6.html (accessed March 18, 2008).