Los Angeles Modern Auctions (LAMA)

The most famous image of a Man on the Moon, an iconic image which belongs to our collective visual memory.

Neil Armstrong framed this amazing full-length portrait of Buzz Aldrin on the Moon, also known as the “Visor Shot”, with the 70mm Hasselblad 500EL Data Camera mounted on the Remote Control Unit of his chest. Buzz Aldrin was standing next to one of the landing pads of the LM Eagle. Aldrin’s shadow, his photographer Neil Armstrong, the LM Eagle, the US flag, the Solar Wind Collector and the Earth (top center of visor) are reflected in Buzz Aldrin’s gold-plated visor.

The photograph closely matches the original Hasselblad frame captured by Armstrong. Many photo editors including the editors of LIFE and NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC dedicated to the lunar landing (LIFE, To the Moon and Back, August 11, 1969; NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, First Explorers on the Moon, December 1969) used a slightly different version of this image with black sky added to the top of Aldrin’s backpack on the covers of magazines, books and newspapers around the world; and consequently in these edited versions the radio antenna on the top of his PLLS (Portable Life Support System) is missing.