Dominique Ciccolella
Sale Coordinator and Expert Liaison
This auction has ended. View lot details
You may also be interested in
![[Apollo 11] CRATER DAEDALUS ON THE FORBIDDING FAR SIDE OF THE MOON: seen by the loneliest human in the world aboard the CSM Columbia Michael Collins, 16–24 July 1969 image 1](/_next/image.jpg?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg1.bonhams.com%2Fimage%3Fsrc%3DImages%2Flive%2F2025-03%2F19%2F25639331-261-1.jpg&w=2400&q=75)
![[Apollo 11] CRATER DAEDALUS ON THE FORBIDDING FAR SIDE OF THE MOON: seen by the loneliest human in the world aboard the CSM Columbia Michael Collins, 16–24 July 1969 image 2](/_next/image.jpg?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg1.bonhams.com%2Fimage%3Fsrc%3DImages%2Flive%2F2025-03%2F19%2F25639331-261-2.jpg&w=2400&q=75)
Lot 279
[Apollo 11] CRATER DAEDALUS ON THE FORBIDDING FAR SIDE OF THE MOON: seen by the loneliest human in the world aboard the CSM Columbia Michael Collins, 16–24 July 1969
14 – 28 April 2025, 12:00 CEST
Paris, Avenue HocheSold for €1,408 inc. premium
Looking for a similar item?
Our Post-War and Contemporary Art specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.
Find your local specialistAsk about this lot
Sabine Cornette de Saint Cyr
Head of Department
Chloe Mayot
Senior Cataloguer
Marion Richard
Specialist
[Apollo 11] CRATER DAEDALUS ON THE FORBIDDING FAR SIDE OF THE MOON: seen by the loneliest human in the world aboard the CSM Columbia
Michael Collins, 16–24 July 1969
Printed 1969.
Vintage chromogenic print on fibre-based Kodak paper [NASA image AS11-44-6609].
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
A photograph from the depths of total isolation—one human, alone off worlds.
Michael Collins took this astonishing photograph while orbiting the far side of the Moon alone in the Command and Service Module (CSM) Columbia during one of the passes between orbits 19 and 26, as Armstrong and Aldrin explored the lunar surface aboard the Lunar Module Eagle. For the first time in history, a human being was completely isolated—out of contact with both Earth, 240,000 miles away, and his crewmates on another world.
This dramatic view, captured with the Hasselblad 500EL equipped with an 80mm lens and colour magazine 44/V, was taken as the Sun set over the centre of the lunar far side. The image looks southwest toward the 93-km-wide Daedalus Crater and its rugged, forbidding surroundings. Latitude/Longitude: 4°S / 179°E.
"When the Sun is shining on the surface at a very shallow angle, the craters cast long shadows, and the Moon's surface seems very inhospitable—forbidding almost. I did not sense any great invitation on the part of the Moon for us to come into its domain. I sensed more almost a hostile place, a scary place."
—Michael Collins (from the documentary In the Shadow of the Moon, 2007)
Printed 1969.
Vintage chromogenic print on fibre-based Kodak paper [NASA image AS11-44-6609].
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
A photograph from the depths of total isolation—one human, alone off worlds.
Michael Collins took this astonishing photograph while orbiting the far side of the Moon alone in the Command and Service Module (CSM) Columbia during one of the passes between orbits 19 and 26, as Armstrong and Aldrin explored the lunar surface aboard the Lunar Module Eagle. For the first time in history, a human being was completely isolated—out of contact with both Earth, 240,000 miles away, and his crewmates on another world.
This dramatic view, captured with the Hasselblad 500EL equipped with an 80mm lens and colour magazine 44/V, was taken as the Sun set over the centre of the lunar far side. The image looks southwest toward the 93-km-wide Daedalus Crater and its rugged, forbidding surroundings. Latitude/Longitude: 4°S / 179°E.
"When the Sun is shining on the surface at a very shallow angle, the craters cast long shadows, and the Moon's surface seems very inhospitable—forbidding almost. I did not sense any great invitation on the part of the Moon for us to come into its domain. I sensed more almost a hostile place, a scary place."
—Michael Collins (from the documentary In the Shadow of the Moon, 2007)
Footnotes
Literature
Moon: Man's Greatest Adventure, Thomas, ed., pp. 186-187
Watch more
CLICK HERE: Apollo 11 - 16-mm magazine 1124-F