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

310 reMeMberING the SpaCe aGe
the collective stories of the thousands of people who made
particular space projects work ofer many opportunities for
thinking about the space agency as a workplace. 57
In considering the last 50 years of existing photographic coverage of
NaSa as a workplace, (often within a framework of industrial photography),
inspires close examination and comparisons to the genre of documentary
portrait photography and to photographers like august Sanders, Lewis hine,
Walker evans, W. eugene Smith, Irving penn, richard avedon and arnold
Newman. 58 In fact the work of Lewis W. hine and W. eugene Smith, specifcally
their photography of american industrialization and its labor (before and after
World War II), ofer a signifcant reference and comparison to the wide range
of NaSa’s photography of its own labor force.
In examining the photography of Lewis hine, I am immediately drawn to
two seminal images: the black-and-white photograph of a goggled welder working
on the empire State building and the photograph of a t-shirted powerhouse
mechanic using a massive wrench to tighten a steam valve. In the circa 1932
photograph, an unnamed goggled worker is pictured amid an elliptically shaped
piece of steel with a cut circle rimmed with bolts as he holds (in gloved hands) an
ignited welding torch. Leaning slightly into the steel, his dark-colored goggles
are juxtaposed to the circular black hole in the steel piece. the convex shape
of his soft tweed-like hat that covers his head juxtaposes of of the concave cut
into the steel. the harmony of this laborer with the work before him can be
57. Ibid., p. 563.
58. the stylistic approach of 20th century portrait photographers like august Sanders, Irving penn,
and richard avedon yields distinct bodies of work that reveals the photographer’s connection
to his subject matter in the hope of capturing moments of vulnerability in body language and
eye contact. Sanders’s documentation of the physiognomy of Germans before World War II,
for example, is signifcant in its breath and honesty. he often portrayed his subjects from all
walks of life—pastry chef, musician, teacher, judge, lawyer, etc.—in their own work or personal
environment. Sanders’s infuence is felt in the portraits of Irving penn and of my own. penn’s
black-and-white series on american and french working professionals and those of various
peruvian and african tribes (or even on american subcultures like hell’s angels) are seminal in
the cultural history of 20th century photography. Specifcally, penn’s 1950s portraits of workers
in paris, London, and New York like bakers, butchers, waiters, charwomen, deep sea divers,
and rag-and-bone men resulted in a seminal body of work called “the Small trades.” each
individual is photographed on a mottled gray background illuminated with natural daylight from
windows or skylights. richard avedon believed that a photograph has a life of its own anchored
in the era in which it was made. as a result, his approach was to both isolate and interpret his
subjects without a defnable location nor identifable background. avedon’s portraits typically
document an individual with a quality of fat lighting posed against a bath of pure white light.
In some respects, this is not too diferent than the expected aesthetics of a passport photograph.
by composing his subjects in diferent positions within the camera’s frame, avedon was able
to capture the essence of an individual through the emotional expression of his or her body
language and his or her direct or indirect eye contact.