Unlike the missions themselves, authenticating a photograph is not an exact science. If value depends on authenticity (itself dependent on provenance, or origin), then is there any way to tell which prints were made just after mission’s end versus a reproduction made years later? In fact, in the aftermath of the Apollo missions, the supply of mission photographs was abundant-NASA distributed them to almost anyone who asked, be it a Dutch newspaper or a schoolteacher in Massachusetts. Some of the most popular prints were created immediately after mission’s end, yet other prints in the market (depicting the exact same image) were reproduced years later. However, upon close examination, each photographic print reveals clues that help tell a story.īut what assurance does a collector have that the photographic print he or she bought has any value? After all, neither the images depicted in these prints nor the prints themselves are new, having been around for decades. The rarer the photograph, it seems, the higher the hammer price. Single prints of Apollo 11’s “Moon man” have sold for upwards of $10,000. Almost every major auction house in the country has, at some point since 2015, held a “vintage space photography” type-of-auction. Among countless collectibles, photographic prints of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo missions stand above the rest in terms of demand. Public interest in NASA memorabilia has skyrocketed in the past several years. Except this time, it is not a competition amongst nation states, but between collectors seeking to acquire vintage NASA photographs. In one of the most famous photographs of the 20th Century, Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin walks on the surface of the moon near the leg of the lunar module Eagle.
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