One Giant Leap for Mankind: Vintage Photographs from the Victor Martin-Malburet Collection 
28 October 2022
One Giant Leap for Mankind: Vintage Photographs from the Victor Martin-Malburet Collection 
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The first selfie in lunar orbit: William Anders during Intra Vehicular Activity inside the Apollo 8 Command Module orbiting the Moon, NASA [Apollo 8], 21-27 December 1968

printed 1968
vintage chromogenic print on fiber-based Kodak paper 10 h × 8 w in (25 × 20 cm)
estimate: $1,500–2,500
result: $750
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As Apollo 8 rounded the Moon for the first time in history, William Anders turned the 16mm camera toward himself to capture the first selfie in lunar orbit.
Numbered to upper margin 'NASA S-68-56532' with NASA MSC caption and 'A Kodak Paper' watermarks to verso.

print

Astronaut William A. Anders, lunar module pilot, is shown during intra vehicular activity (IVA) on the Apollo 8 lunar orbit mission. This still print was made from movie film taken by an onboard 16mm motion picture camera. [NASA caption]

 “I think you all overemphasize this emotional, what-does-it-do-to-the-psyche and all that sort of stuff. We’re engineers and we’re test pilots. You’re not doing anything different from taking up an airplane. And going out to the Moon is certainly a first, and it’s awe-inspiring, and it’s great. But I mean, there’s no great emotional change. Nothing in zero gravity or space changes anything you think, or anything like that. [...] I mean, it’s just another extension of our exploration.”

—James Lovell (Chaikin, Voices, pg. 162)

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