On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first people
ever to set foot on the Moon, their iconic "small steps" captured
forever by the camera the astronauts carried with them: the Hasselblad
500EL. This book looks at the history of the Apollo 11 mission through
the lens of the Hasselblad, while narrating the parallel challenge to
create a camera that could work on the Moon. It considers the cameras
used, and the photographs captured, during the Space Race between Russia
and America; looks at the experience of taking photographs on the Moon
for the first time; and reflects on the legacy of those images, and
their part in the enduring Moon Landing conspiracy theories. The second
half of the book presents a commemorative album of photographs taken in
space using the Hasselblad 500EL. While the Apollo 11 astronauts left
their three cameras behind on the Moon, where they remain to this day,
they brought back film magazines containing 1,400 photographs. A
selection of the finest of these is shown alongside the mission timeline
and transcripts of the conversations between the astronauts and mission
control at Houston.