Is it art? In November of 1969, Apollo 12 [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] astronaut-photograph er Charles "Pete" Conrad [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] recorded this masterpiece [ http://images.jsc.n…] while documenting colleague Alan Bean's lunar soil collection activities on the Oceanus Procellarum [ http://volcano.und.…lunar/mare/mlm.html ]. The image is dramatic and stark [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…]. Bean is faceless. The harsh environment of the Moon's Ocean of Storms is echoed in his helmet's perfectly composed reflection of Conrad and the lunar horizon [ http://www.hq.nasa.…]. Works of photojournalists originally intent on recording the human condition on planet Earth, such as Lewis W. Hine's [ http://www.geh.org/…index.html ] images from New York City in the early 20th century, or Margaret Bourke-White's [ http://lkwdpl.org/w…] magazine photography are widely regarded as art. Similarly many documentary astronomy and space images [ http://www.nasa.gov…] can be appreciated for their artistic and esthetic appeal.
