Apollo 11: Buzz Aldrin’s gold-plated sun visor reflects the photographer and the LM Eagle: Cover of LIFE and NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC. Neil Armstrong [Apollo 11], 16–24 July 1969. Vintage chromogenic print on fiber-based Kodak paper, printed 1969 [NASA AS11–40-5903]. 20.3×25.4 cm (8×10 in), with „A Kodak Paper“ watermarks on the verso.
Literature: LIFE (August 11, 1969; cover); NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC (December 1969, cover); NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, December 1969 pp. 736–737; Chaikin, Space, p. 95; Thomas, frontispiece; Jacobs, p. 62; Reynolds, p. 145; Arnold, plate 17, Chaikin, Voices, p. 179; NASA SP-350, cover.
The most famous image of a man on the Moon. This superb version of Armstrong’s photograph graced the covers of LIFE and NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC dedicated to the lunar landing (LIFE, to the Moon and back, August 11, 1969; NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, first explorers on the Moon, December 1969). Many other photo editors used this cropped version with black sky added to the top of Aldrin’s backpack on the covers of magazines, books and newspapers around the world; and consequently the radio antenna on the top of his PLLS (Portable Life Support System) is missing.
“As I walked away from the Eagle Lunar Module. Neil said, ‘Hold it, Buzz.’ So I stopped and turned around, and then he took what has become known as the ‘Visor’ photo. I like this photo because it captures the moment of a solitary figure against the horizon of the Moon, along with a reflection in my helmet’s visor of our home away from home, the Eagle, and of Neil snapping the photo.” Buzz Aldrin (Jacobs, p. 63).
NASA photographs, 9 March 2022