From the Collection: NASA in Colour in the Black Star Collection (1969–1984)

January 16–April 6, 2024
From the Collection Wall, The Image Centre
Curator: Chantal Wilson

Of the 291,468 photographs in the IMC’s Black Star Collection, only 288 are printed in colour. Almost all of these are related to space missions launched by the United States’ National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in the latter half of the 20th century.

During the most active years of the Black Star Publishing Company—from the late 1930s through the 1990s—colour photographs were principally distributed to magazines in the form of duplicate transparencies, from which reproductions could easily be made. Contrary to this standard practice, the US government released NASA’s imagery to the media as physical colour prints. These were issued in the public domain with no copyright restrictions, so images related to aeronautics and satellites, rocket launches and space exploration, and the ground crews, astronauts and scientists who carried out American missions in outer space were permanently retained by press agencies like Black Star, to be resold continuously for publication.

On July 20, 1969, people gathered around their television sets to watch two astronauts, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, take their first steps on the moon. In the moment, viewers could only see the landing transmitted in grainy, black-and-white video. It took several weeks for NASA to release high-quality still photographs, made in space by the astronauts. By the late 1960s, competition from broadcast television had prompted print news editors to find new ways to attract readers. Newspapers and magazines began publishing NASA’s distributed photographs with supplemental information to realize more in-depth coverage—including behind-the-scenes stories about preparation and training for space flights, and exposés on the

personal and family lives of astronauts—providing more detail than could be communicated in a short news cycle or through live television programs. Such extensive picture stories satisfied public demand to see beyond the momentary excitement of televised launches, orbits and spacecraft landings. The NASA colour photographs on view here, including both icons and more quotidian images, reveal the emphasis placed by the illustrated press on the wonder of the space race and celebration of American prowess during the Cold War era.