.... Armstrong photo expected to go for $63,000....
Sale by Christie’s in London of 2,400 vintage images ranges from the dawn of space age to the last men on the moon
The only photograph of Neil Armstrong on the Moon, July 16-24, 1969 [Apollo 11] Photograph: Buzz Aldrin/NASA/c/o Christie's
Neil Armstrong’s giant leap for mankind is on sale to the highest bidder after a private collector released a treasure trove of Nasa images from spaceflight’s golden era for auction, including the only photograph taken of the first human walking on the moon.
The July 1969 snapshot is the highlight of the collection of 2,400 vintage images across 700 lots featured on the Christie’s of London website, including the first selfie from space by Armstrong’s Apollo 11 crewmate Buzz Aldrin and the epochal Earthrise photograph that captured the planet emerging above the moon’s horizon.
Bidding starts at £100 (about $132) for many of the photographs in the auction, which is being held online because of the coronavirus pandemic. Christie’s estimates that some of the better-known images will reach in excess of £50,000 ($66,000) individually.
First self-portrait in space, by Buzz Aldrin, November 11-15, 1966 Photograph: Buzz Aldrin/NASA/c/o Christie's
“The collection is the most comprehensive private collection of Nasa photographs ever presented at auction, and spans every visual milestone of the space program, from the early days of Mercury, the technical advances of Gemini and lunar orbiter, to the triumphs of Apollo,” Christie’s said in a press release promoting the sale.
“Through their cameras, the astronauts-turned-artists were able to convey to mankind the beauty and profundity of their experience in space, forever changing the way we see ourselves and our place in the universe.”
Voyage to Another World: the Victor Martin-Malburet Photograph Collection is a chronological journey of humankind’s achievements in space beginning with the early days of rocketry in the 1940s to the first color photograph of Earth and the moon together in the same still image, taken from the Voyager 1 space probe in 1977.
Amassed by Martin-Malburet, a 39-year-old Frenchman who has been hoarding space images from his teen years when he had dreams of becoming an astronaut, parts of the collection have been displayed in various guises over the years.
Most recently, images from the Apollo missions of the 1960s and early 1970s toured several prestigious art museums in Europe during the summer of 2019 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first human moon landing.
While the smaller number of landmark photographs are familiar to space enthusiasts, the vast majority of the collection is being seen publicly for the first time, having been hidden in archives for decades and viewed previously only by researchers at Nasa’s Johnson space center in Houston, Texas, or the Russian space agency Roscosmos.
Other notable images for sale include Laika, the first dog to orbit Earth, awaiting launch in a space capsule in the Soviet Union in 1957; the first shot of the back side of the moon taken in 1959; Blue Marble, the first full photograph of Earth from human eyes taken in 1972; and several from the Apollo 17 mission later that year in which Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt were the last of the 12 humans ever to set foot on the moon.
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www.theguardian.com
Sale by Christie’s in London of 2,400 vintage images ranges from the dawn of space age to the last men on the moon
Neil Armstrong’s giant leap for mankind is on sale to the highest bidder after a private collector released a treasure trove of Nasa images from spaceflight’s golden era for auction, including the only photograph taken of the first human walking on the moon.
The July 1969 snapshot is the highlight of the collection of 2,400 vintage images across 700 lots featured on the Christie’s of London website, including the first selfie from space by Armstrong’s Apollo 11 crewmate Buzz Aldrin and the epochal Earthrise photograph that captured the planet emerging above the moon’s horizon.
Bidding starts at £100 (about $132) for many of the photographs in the auction, which is being held online because of the coronavirus pandemic. Christie’s estimates that some of the better-known images will reach in excess of £50,000 ($66,000) individually.
“The collection is the most comprehensive private collection of Nasa photographs ever presented at auction, and spans every visual milestone of the space program, from the early days of Mercury, the technical advances of Gemini and lunar orbiter, to the triumphs of Apollo,” Christie’s said in a press release promoting the sale.
“Through their cameras, the astronauts-turned-artists were able to convey to mankind the beauty and profundity of their experience in space, forever changing the way we see ourselves and our place in the universe.”
Voyage to Another World: the Victor Martin-Malburet Photograph Collection is a chronological journey of humankind’s achievements in space beginning with the early days of rocketry in the 1940s to the first color photograph of Earth and the moon together in the same still image, taken from the Voyager 1 space probe in 1977.
Amassed by Martin-Malburet, a 39-year-old Frenchman who has been hoarding space images from his teen years when he had dreams of becoming an astronaut, parts of the collection have been displayed in various guises over the years.
Most recently, images from the Apollo missions of the 1960s and early 1970s toured several prestigious art museums in Europe during the summer of 2019 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first human moon landing.
While the smaller number of landmark photographs are familiar to space enthusiasts, the vast majority of the collection is being seen publicly for the first time, having been hidden in archives for decades and viewed previously only by researchers at Nasa’s Johnson space center in Houston, Texas, or the Russian space agency Roscosmos.
Other notable images for sale include Laika, the first dog to orbit Earth, awaiting launch in a space capsule in the Soviet Union in 1957; the first shot of the back side of the moon taken in 1959; Blue Marble, the first full photograph of Earth from human eyes taken in 1972; and several from the Apollo 17 mission later that year in which Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt were the last of the 12 humans ever to set foot on the moon.
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Treasure trove of Nasa photos including first selfie in space up for auction
Sale by Christie’s in London of 2,400 vintage images ranges from the dawn of space age to the last men on the moon
