If you have a few thousand extra Euros, an art gallery is selling vintage NASA photographs. While originally taken as science and research photos, framing these photos and selling them through a gallery casts them in a different light. It’s interesting that these photos have the look of mid-century photographs, because of the technology available at the time, that reminds me of the look people are trying to achieve with Instagram filters. It shows us what we value: that we value photographs of a certain era because they remind of us something, not necessarily that they are, or were ever intended as, art. And by doing so, these photos reframe the conversation of what is art.

One of my favorites is the close-up of Gemini 6 & 7. The focus is on the spacecraft, but what is more important is what is seen out of focus in the background: the Earth and the surrounding darkness of space. These photos invoke a sense of awe, but also loneliness; the things of man, while seeming so significant on Earth, look so small when put against the backdrop of space.

http://www.vintagenasaphotographs.com/