Eight years of discussions. Six months of training. Two days of final preparations. Much was required to give photographer Blair Bunting two hours at the edge of Earth's atmosphere to conduct the first-ever photo shoot at near-space where he captured images that have never been made before and will likely never be made again.
Conspiracy theorists often point to moon landing photos as evidence that the whole thing was faked by the US government. One of the arguments is that since there's only one main light source in the photos -- the sun -- the shadows should have been much darker and less detailed.
That argument has now been debunked thanks to one newly uncovered fact: Neil Armstrong's spacesuit actually served as a great reflector, bouncing light into the shadows and illuminating many scenes.
Say you're a space enthusiast; and say you find yourself bidding on an old Russian high altitude spacesuit; and then, say you win that auction. What would you, as a skilled photographer with a brand new, awesome prop on hand, do with it?
We can't speak for you, but we can show you what photographer Tim Dodd did, and it's just plain fun.
For his project titled "Alienation," Italian photographer Graziano Panfili shot portraits of ordinary people wearing space suits in ordinary locations. Subjects are seen standing or sitting in places such as elevators, bedrooms, bathrooms, and basements.
More than most government agencies, NASA is actually pretty enthusiastic about photography (by comparison, we probably won't be seeing CIA photography archives come to light any time soon). When NASA had a problem that needed solving they liked to look towards their cameras, and that's exactly what they did when they needed to test and record the abilities of their space suits.