Man on the Moon: How a Photograph Made Anything Seem Possible (Captured History)

It is a bizarrely beautiful image: A man in a spacesuit stands isolated in an alien world. His companion, the photographer, and their landing craft are reflected in his visor. This photograph, taken by Neil Armstrong of fellow astronaut Buzz Aldrin, is the most famous documentation of America’s 1969 moon landing. But to people in every country on Earth, it represented―and still does―so much more. The man in the photograph was hundreds of thousands of miles away from his home planet. He had conquered another world. It was, as Armstrong said, “a giant leap for mankind.” The photo of this historic event remains one of the most powerful and inspiring representations of the achievements of humankind.