Title from caption on object: “How We Look from Outer Space”
December 24, 1968
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
gelatin silver print
Dimensions
image: 17.3 × 18.2 cm (6 13/16 × 7 3/16 in.) sheet: 20.2 × 24.9 cm (7 15/16 × 9 13/16 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Mary and Dan Solomon
Accession Number
2018.177.584
Art Historical Context
Captured on December 24, 1968, during NASA's Apollo 8 mission, *How We Look from Outer Space is a gelatin silver print by astronaut Bill Anders. This iconic photograph offers a breathtaking view of Earth over the Moon's stark horizon, one of the first color images of our planet taken by humans from deep space. Measuring 17.3 × 18.2 cm, the print preserves the raw drama of the moment in crisp black-and-white detail, a testament to mid-20th-century photographic technology. Apollo 8 marked humanity's first voyage around the Moon, a daring Christmas Eve milestone that shifted our cosmic perspecti...