The late adventure photographer Galen Rowell called it
“the most influential environmental photograph ever taken.”
Captured on Christmas Eve, 1968, near the end of one of the most
tumultuous years the U.S. had ever known, the Earthrise photograph
inspired contemplation of our fragile existence and our place in the
cosmos.
For years, Frank Borman and Bill Anders of the Apollo 8 mission each
thought that he was the one who took the picture.
An investigation of two rolls of film seemed to prove Borman had
taken an earlier, black-and-white frame, and the iconic colour
photograph, which later graced a U.S. postage stamp and several book
covers, was by Anders.