Vintage NASA Photographs In Clerkenwell

Tabish Khan
By Tabish Khan Last edited 114 months ago
Vintage NASA Photographs In Clerkenwell
James McDivitt, Ed White walking in space over New Mexico - EVA Gemini 4 June 1965. NASA, Breese Little
James McDivitt, Ed White walking in space over New Mexico - EVA Gemini 4 June 1965. NASA, Breese Little
Segment of Saturn’s rings, Voyager 2, 1981, NASA-JPL, BREESE LITTLE
Segment of Saturn’s rings, Voyager 2, 1981, NASA-JPL, BREESE LITTLE
James McDivitt, Ed White Walking in space (EVA), Gemini 4,  June 1965, NASA, Breese Little
James McDivitt, Ed White Walking in space (EVA), Gemini 4, June 1965, NASA, Breese Little
United States, Mexico, Central America, Apollo 16, April 1972, NASA, BREESE LITTLE
United States, Mexico, Central America, Apollo 16, April 1972, NASA, BREESE LITTLE
Charles Duke, John Young collect lunar samples,  Apollo 16, April 1972, NASA, BREESE LITTLE
Charles Duke, John Young collect lunar samples, Apollo 16, April 1972, NASA, BREESE LITTLE
Martian hemisphere, Viking 1 Orbiter, June 1976, NASA, BREESE LITTLE
Martian hemisphere, Viking 1 Orbiter, June 1976, NASA, BREESE LITTLE

Photographs of space are guaranteed to leave people awestruck. Humans have been venturing into space for over 50 years but our solar system and beyond is a constant reminder of how insignificant we are in the grand cosmological scheme of things.

In a break from their usual contemporary art programme, Breese Little presents over 80 vintage photographs from NASA's archive of space walks, detailed views of planets and images of our 'pale blue dot' from space.

The pictures themselves, with their colour saturation and their size, seem extremely dated, and this only adds to the sense of what was accomplished in space exploration between 30 and 50 years ago.

Though these grainy images can't compete with the latest high resolution outputs from the Hubble telescope, they are an important historical record of when space exploration was truly pioneering.

Encountering the astronomical sublime: Vintage NASA photographs 1961-1980 is on at Breese Little, 30b Great Sutton Street, EC1V 0DU until 25 October. Entrance is free.

Also on at the gallery are the photographs of Jan Kempenaers including a series on the imposing World War Two memorials found across the former Yugoslavia.

For more great art to see in London, visit our monthly listings.

Last Updated 23 September 2014