LM Eagle and Earthrise: a photograph showing every human being in the universe except the photographer, 16-24 July 1969

Vintage chromogenic print on early resin coated paper, printed 1969, with NASA caption numbered 69-H--1271", "699-HC-861" and "AS11-44-6642" (NASA HQ) as well as "A KODAK PAPER" watermark on verso, 20,3 x 25,4 cm

After 21 hours on the surface, the LM Eagle with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on board rose to join Michael Collins in the orbiting CSM Columbia for the journey back to Earth.

“Little by little, they grew closer, steady, as if on rails, and I thought ‘What a beautiful sight,’ one that had to be recorded. As I reached for my Hasselblad, suddenly the Earth popped up over the horizon, directly behind Eagle. I could not have staged it any better, but the alignment was not of my doing, just a happy coincidence. I suspect a lot of good photography is like that, some serendipitous happenstance beyond the control of the photographer. But at any rate, as I clicked away, I realized that for the first time, in one frame, appeared three billion earthlings, two explorers, and one Moon. The photographer, of course, was discreetly out of view.”
Michael Collins (Jacobs, p. 65)

Literature:
National Geographic, December 1969, ppg. 748-749; Moon: Man’s Greatest Adventure, Thomas, ed., pg. 206; The View from Space: American Astronaut Photography, 1962–1972, Schick and Van Haaften, pg. 75; Apollo: Through the Eyes of the Astronauts, Jacobs, pg. 64; Apollo Expeditions to the Moon (NASA SP-350), Cortright, ed., pg. 219.