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

332 reMeMberING the SpaCe aGe
It seems to me that what art has historically,traditionally focused
on are these moments of recognition and insight. by looking
closely at specifcs in life, you discover a wider view. and
although we can’t speak with much assurance about how this is
conveyed, it does seem to me that among the most important
ways it’s conveyed by artists is through attention to form.
the notable thing, it seems to me, about great pictures is that
everything fts. there is nothing extraneous. there is nothing
too much, too little, and everything within that frame relates.
Nothing is isolated.the reason that becomes so moving is that
the artist fnally says that the form that he or she has found in
that frame is analogous to form in life. the coherence within
that frame points to a wider coherence in life as a whole. 82
It is my observation that a signifcant quality of space exploration photography
is unique and idiosyncratic in form. the form is revealed in landscape
and documentation as it spans through a whole host of photographic imagery
(in color and black-and-white) not just produced and created on earth, but created
from robotic spacecraft, human spacefight, and earth-based telescopes.
furthering the discussion on the aesthetics of art photography, it is worth noting
the historical relevance that black-and-white space exploration photography
has had on contemporary fne art photographers like Michael Light, Michael
benson, John Sexton, and even myself. Charlotte Cotton, a curator and writer
on photography, ofers some thought on the reascendancy of black-and-white in
a recent online essay titled “the New Color: the return of black-and-white”:
I am sure I’m not alone in beginning to think that the more
complex, messy, unfashionable, and broad territory of blackand-white
photography is where we are going to fnd some
of the grist to the mill in photography’s substantive and longer-term
positioning within art. 83
Indeed, the rich tonalities of black-and-white photography—from velvety
blacks to grays to pure whites—have defned the aesthetics of landscape and
documentary photography since the late 19th century. the recent documentary
and landscape work by contemporary photographers such as Sebastian Salgado
82. See more on robert adams “photography, Life and beauty” on pbS’s Art in the Twenty First
Century, http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/adams/clip2.html (accessed february 13, 2008).
83. Charlotte Cotton, “the New Color: the return of black-and-white.” Contribution to
the tip of the tongue forum, March 2007, http://www.thetipofthetongue.com (accessed March
2007, now defunct).