Amateur Photographer – 20 July 2019

subscribe 0330 333 1113 I http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk I 20 July 2019 25

http://www.zeiss.com/moon

On July 20, 1969, a collective dream became reality, with a footprint symbolizing this achievement: on that day, man set foot on the Moon for the first
time. The limits of what seemed possible were now redefined. When the ambition was set to send a man to the Moon and return safe back to Earth,
many people helped to make this dream of mankind come true. Thousands of engineers and technicians throughout all disciplines and countries got
involved. ZEISS became part of this challenge: camera lenses specially designed for space captured the iconic images of this monumental achievement.

eventually spending 30 years

documenting space programs. He

effectively became an insider at

NASA, which gave him unique

access to the agency’s projects and

people. So much so that astronaut

John Glenn dubbed Morse ‘the

eighth astronaut’, referring to

how closely Morse shadowed and

photographed the training of the

seven Project Mercury astronauts.

Morse was also notable for his

inventions and the innovative ways

he captured the development of

NASA’s increasingly complex

activities. For rocket launches

he shot double exposures, used

infrared cameras, worked with

motion detectors and rigged up

remote cameras so that he could

photograph the rockets close up.

The coverage of NASA’s space

missions also extended to the likes

of legendary sports photographer

Neil Leifer, street photographer

Garry Winogrand and the

photojournalists Lawrence Schiller

and Flip Schulke. Both Leifer and

Winogrand were on the ground

at the Kennedy Space Center in

Florida to shoot the launch of

Apollo 11 on 16 July 1969.

In-house photography

Of NASA’s in-house operations

Piers Bizony reveals, ‘The agency

had major photo and image

archiving operations at almost all of

its “field centres”, such as Houston

and the Kennedy launch complex.

Today these operations have been

massively scaled back because the

budgets are no longer there to run

them. Although NASA still has huge

reserves of legacy material, I have

often relied on private citizen

collectors for rare “behind-the-

scenes at NASA” materials that were

once easily obtainable from NASA.’

As well as behind-the-scenes

images shot by magazine

photographers and the stunning

space images shot by astronauts,

NASA has employed only two key

in-house photographers since its

inception. Bizony explains, ‘In the

1960s Bill Taub took most of the

famous shots of astronauts getting

ready for missions. Today, Bill

Ingalls, a similarly talented

photographer, does that job.’

Although Taub’s images were

rarely credited by name he was

Above: Apollo 1

crew members Gus

Grissom (middle,

centre), Roger

Chaffee (second

from right) and Ed

White (extreme

right) relax during

‘water egress’

training at the

Manned Spacecraft

Center, Houston,

June 1966. Behind

the scenes their

dissatisfaction with

the design of the

Apollo 1 spacecraft

was made evident

when Grissom hung

a lemon over the

Command Module

simulator in protest