VOL. MCMLXI Dark Moon 1961: An Expired Archive — Steven Brahms

VOL. MCMLXI Dark Moon 1961: An Expired Archive comprises 31 photographs of the far side of the moon.  The images are facsimile reproductions of actual photographs printed traditionally on Kodak Kodabromide E-2 paper (Batch 11807-1041) that expired from recommended usage in February 1961. Before printing, the expired paper was pre-treated with a custom chemical solution to compensate for the long-term cosmic radiation on the Kodabromide emulsion. The first human-made images of the far side of the moon were produced in 1968, when the Apollo 8 astronauts orbited the moon for the first time. Since the far side of the moon is locked in synchronous orbit with Earth, no one could have seen or photographed it before the Apollo 8 mission. This means the photographs represented in this book are, in essence, impossible artifacts. Photography has long been a tool we use to understand the visible universe and create a record of time. We trust photographs because we understand the process. When th