Prologue
A human first beheld our home planet from orbit on 12 April 1961. Cosmonaut Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin of the Soviet Union Air Force spent 108 minutes in space in this noble contraption, shown on a test stand with the hatch removed.
The capsule had one small porthole (see right) but the only camera aboard was pointed at Gagarin’s face. After reentry he ejected from the capsule and parachuted 23,000 feet to the ground with only his memories.
He was such a Soviet national hero that his life couldn’t be risked, so he never flew in space again.
I’m writing this nearly sixty years later. Space has been inhabited full-time for almost two decades now, and during that time astronauts have taken uncounted photographs for uncountable reasons. By 2020, NASA alone had four million photos on file, and I assume that Russia and China have their own vast archives. But those are topics for another day.
ASTRONAUT-PHOTOGRAPHY.COM is the result of my decade-long fascination with the most interesting, significant, and — most of all — beautiful of those photographs. I’ll share what I’ve learned about how to find and restore spectacular photos of anywhere on Earth, but I’m strictly self-taught so I’m hoping that others will (eventually) share their expertise here.
I was born dead center in the middle of the North American Great Lakes region, and the Great Lakes, Grand Lands album is my personal collection. Those photos are simultaneously beautiful, romantic, and sentimental to me, and I hope that other lovers of the Great Lakes will feel the same.
The other albums on ASTRONAUT-PHOTOGRAPHY.COM are mostly empty at this point, with a standing invitation for others to participate. Submissions and suggestions (within certain guidelines qqqLINK) are welcome.