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

exaMINING the ICONIC aND reDISCOVerING the phOtOGraphY Of 333
SpaCe expLOratION IN CONtext tO the hIStOrY Of phOtOGraphY
(Genesis), bernd and hilla becher (Water Towers), and John Sexton (Places of Power)
re-afrms the signifcance of black-and-white as a means of exploration and discovery.
even the recent exploration of the daguerreotype process by the artist
Chuck Close has resulted in fnely crafted black-and-white portraits of contemporary
artists and writers. the consideration of black-and-white as the “new color”
is signifcant. to Cotton, it may even move photography to a new plane:
Contemporary black-and-white photography . . . has moved
my thinking about the present state of photography onto a
much more optimistic platform. through these contemporary
manifestations, the true, maverick character of photography,
of our medium’s history, is far from lost. Indeed, these
threads of the past are given new and meaningful efect. 84
One could conclude that the enthusiastic response of a few contemporary
photographers to the abundance of black-and-white photography that NaSa
produced during the frst 50 years of space exploration is no surprise. 85 It is
compelling that apollo 12 and 14 through 17 produced a signifcant amount
of black-and-white photography, and it is the scope of that photography
which tends to be referenced and appropriated by fne art photographers. this
appropriation is signifcant because the inherent nature of black-and-white
imaging foreshadows what art photography could contribute to the present
and evolving history of space exploration photography, particularly in the
documentation of people and place as human spacefight transitions from the
Space Shuttle and the ISS into the Constellation program. 86
84. Ibid.
85. It should be noted, however, that the institutional choice (by photographic engineers) at NaSa
to use color flm on human spacefight missions (since project Mercury) was not arbitrary.the
decision was pragmatic because it refected the practical needs of the engineering and scientifc
communities. a technical philosophy unchanged as human spacefight activities evolved from
project apollo and Skylab, to the Space Shuttle and ISS programs.although during the frst 20
years of NaSa, the paO (public afairs Ofce) typically relied on black-and-white photography
to record the day-to-day and staged media events given the medium’s immediacy and the
historical nature of its use in the print media. however, by the late 1970s and with the emerging
Space Shuttle program, black-and-white was eased out in favor of the immediacy (and cultural
preference) that color coverage could provide. a choice unchanged as the second 50 years of
space exploration begins, except to note that color flms were gradually eased out in the late
1990s in favor of color digital technology.
86. the reemergent relevance of black-and-white, however, does not diminish the signifcance that
color continues to have. for example, note the works by photographers like William eggleston,
Stephen Shore, Joel Meyerowitz, robert adams, and John pfahl. It also must be considered that
over the last several decades artist photographers, curators and teachers have emerged from Mfa
programs like those found at the art Institutes of Chicago, San francisco,Yale, and the rochester
Institute of technology.