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 
206

First Earthrise: the first color photograph of the first Earthrise witnessed by humans (large format), William Anders [Apollo 8], 21-27 December 1968

printed 1968
large-format vintage chromogenic print on fiber-based Kodak paper flush-mounted to original NASA card 10⅛ h × 13½ w in (26 × 34 cm)
estimate: $12,000–18,000
result: $7,500
own a similar item?
free evaluation

The celebrated view of Planet Earth rising above the bleached lunar horizon. The crew had completed three lunar orbits before emerging from the farside and witnessing this sight for the first time, surely one of the most astounding ever photographed in all of human history.
'A Kodak Paper' watermarks to verso. Accompanied by a document (previously adhered to frame) with NASA HQ caption. [NASA image AS8-14-2383]

note: Media visuals referencing the original NASA photograph(s) not included.
literature: LIFE, January 10, 1969, ppg. 20-21 National Geographic, May 1969, ppg. 596-597 Newsweek, 7 July 1969, cover Time, 10 January 1969, pg. 41 The View from Space: American Astronaut Photography, 1962–1972, Schick and Van Haaften, pg. 98 Space: A History of Space Exploration in Photographs, Chaikin, pg. 83 Airborne Camera: The World from the Air of Outer Space, Newhall, ppg. 136-137 Apollo: Through the Eyes of the Astronauts, Jacobs, pg. 32 Apollo: The Epic Journey to the Moon, Reynolds, pg. 111

print

The celebrated view of Planet Earth rising above the bleached lunar horizon (the first taken by human beings on color film). The crew had completed three lunar orbits before emerging from the farside and witnessing this sight for the first time, surely one of the most astounding ever photographed in all of human history.

Vintage color prints of this size are exceptionally rare and were expensive to produce. The glorious nostalgia of this golden era and the patina of time is reflected in this incredible photograph.

LIFE, January 10, 1969, ppg. 20-21

National Geographic, May 1969, ppg. 596-597

“We were looking down at a rough, stark lunar surface with the long shadows of lunar sunset. It looked very desolate, colorless, monotonous, even unfriendly. We had no sooner taken in this somewhat disappointing scene than up popped the Earth. We all saw it at once, and there we were looking back at our Home Planet, the place where we evolved. Our Earth was quite colorful, pretty, and delicate compared to the very rough, rugged, beat-up, even boring lunar surface. I think it struck everybody that here we’d come 240,000 miles to see the Moon and it was the Earth that was really worth looking at.”

—William Anders (Schick and Van Haaften, pg. 92)

206