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Lot 274
[Apollo 11] THE FIRST PORTRAIT ON ANOTHER WORLD: Neil Armstrong inside LM Eagle after the historic moonwalk Buzz Aldrin, 16-24 July 1969
14 – 28 April 2025, 12:00 CEST
Paris, Avenue HocheSold for €3,840 inc. premium
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[Apollo 11] THE FIRST PORTRAIT ON ANOTHER WORLD: Neil Armstrong inside LM Eagle after the historic moonwalk
Buzz Aldrin, 16-24 July 1969
Printed 1969.
Vintage chromogenic print on fibre-based Kodak paper [NASA image AS11-37-5528].
Numbered "NASA AS11-37-5528" in red in the top margin, with "A Kodak Paper" watermark on the reverse (issued by NASA Manned Spacecraft Centre, Houston, Texas).
20.3 x 25.4 cm. (8 x 10 in.)
Historical context
This image holds profound significance—Buzz Aldrin took very few photographs of Neil Armstrong on the lunar surface, but this historic image—captured inside the Lunar Module Eagle after the moonwalk—is the first photograph showing the face of a human on the Moon. Armstrong and Aldrin had just spent over two hours on the lunar surface, collecting samples, setting up experiments, and leaving behind humanity's first footprints on the Moon. This moment captures Armstrong as he processes the magnitude of their achievement.
The members of the Apollo 11 crew conducted themselves with a cool-even laconic-professionalism throughout the mission, to the general despair of newspaper headline writers. Once the more difficult and novel aspects of the flight had been successfully completed however, a change of mood became evident. His face, still marked by the historic experience, radiates exhaustion, exhilaration, and an unmistakable sense of accomplishment. An emotional tear is visible in his right eye.
"I wasn't chosen to be first. I was just chosen to command that flight. Circumstance put me in that particular role. That wasn't planned by anyone."
Neil Armstrong (2005 interview with CBS)
Printed 1969.
Vintage chromogenic print on fibre-based Kodak paper [NASA image AS11-37-5528].
Numbered "NASA AS11-37-5528" in red in the top margin, with "A Kodak Paper" watermark on the reverse (issued by NASA Manned Spacecraft Centre, Houston, Texas).
20.3 x 25.4 cm. (8 x 10 in.)
Historical context
This image holds profound significance—Buzz Aldrin took very few photographs of Neil Armstrong on the lunar surface, but this historic image—captured inside the Lunar Module Eagle after the moonwalk—is the first photograph showing the face of a human on the Moon. Armstrong and Aldrin had just spent over two hours on the lunar surface, collecting samples, setting up experiments, and leaving behind humanity's first footprints on the Moon. This moment captures Armstrong as he processes the magnitude of their achievement.
The members of the Apollo 11 crew conducted themselves with a cool-even laconic-professionalism throughout the mission, to the general despair of newspaper headline writers. Once the more difficult and novel aspects of the flight had been successfully completed however, a change of mood became evident. His face, still marked by the historic experience, radiates exhaustion, exhilaration, and an unmistakable sense of accomplishment. An emotional tear is visible in his right eye.
"I wasn't chosen to be first. I was just chosen to command that flight. Circumstance put me in that particular role. That wasn't planned by anyone."
Neil Armstrong (2005 interview with CBS)
Footnotes
From the mission transcript before the liftoff from the Moon:
114:22:23 McCandless (Mission Control): We'd like to say from all of us down here in Houston and really from all of us in all the countries in the entire world, we think that you've done a magnificent job up there today. Over.
114:22:46 Armstrong: Thank you very much.
114:22:48 Aldrin: It's been a long day.
Literature
LIFE, 11 August 1969
National Geographic, December 1969, p. 746
Moon: Man's Greatest Adventure, Thomas, ed., p. 209
Apollo: The Epic Journey to the Moon, Reynolds, p. 146.