men on the moon

Neil Armstrong, commander of the Eagle (Lunar Module), was the first man to set foot on the moon. He was shortly followed by the pilot, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin. One of the many memorable images taken at the time was that of Edwin Aldrin, a solitary man on an alien planet.

The man stands in the centre, above his head the infinite blackness of space, the moon’s horizon leans suggestively, the sloping plane continues through the visor, which reflects the instruments, the photographer, the subject’s shadow and the moon lander.The date was 20 July 1969. Most middle-aged people still remember exactly where they were when the television pictures from the moon were first broadcast around the world. Over 500 million spectators followed this historic direct transmission. Since then this image has been printed millions of times in thousands of contexts. Among others it appeared on the covers of some international publications, TIME, National Geographic, Life, etc

Neil Armstrong took this photograph using a Hasselblad Data Camera (read more about the Hasselblad Data Camera here)     

The picture was taken almost directly into the sun and it is perfectly exposed. It is sharply focused and the colors are brilliant, despite the harsh light. Of course this is a manual focus and manual exposure picture and all of this without seeing the frame because the camera was not equipped with a viewfinder. In the foreground we see footprints and a part of the moon lander chassis in the bottom right corner of the frame. This is the only shot in which both astronauts appear. It is the only photograph that Neil Armstrong can show of himself on the moon, as a reflection in his colleague’s visor. He shot a total of 3 film magazines containing over 150 frames each.

 

 

 

 

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