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The most thrilling of all journeys--the missions of the Apollo
astronauts to the surface of the Moon and back--yielded
32,000 extraordinarily beautiful photographs, the record of
a unique human achievement. Until recently, only a handful
of these photographs had been released for publication; but
now, for the first time, NASA has allowed a selection of the
master negatives and transparencies to be scanned
electronically, rendering the sharpest images of space that
we have ever seen. Michael Light has woven 129 of these
stunningly clear images into a single composite voyage, a
narrative of breathtaking immediacy and authenticity that
begins with the launch and is followed by a walk in space,
an orbit of the Moon, a lunar landing and exploration, and
a return to Earth with an orbit and splashdown.
Graced by five 45-inch-wide gatefolds that display the lunar
landscape, from above the surface and at eye level, in
unprecedented detail and clarity, Full Moon conveys on each
page the excitement, disorientation, and awe that the
astronauts themselves felt as they were shot into space and
then as they explored an alien landscape and looked back at
their home planet from hundreds of thousands of miles away.
Published on the thirtieth anniversary of Apollo 11--the first
landing on the Moon--this remarkable and mesmerizing
volume is, like the voyages it commemorates and re-creates,
an experience both intimate and monumental.
Michael Light is an artist and photographer based in San
Francisco. His work is in the collections of The Center for
Creative Photography and the San Francisco Museum of
Modern Art. His photo-novel, Ranch, was published in 1994.
Andrew Chaikin, who contributed an essay to this volume, is
the author of the definitive study of the Apollo missions, A
Man on the Moon (1994), which was the basis of the award-
winning television series From the Earth to the Moon.
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