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Famed American portrait photographer Annie Leibovitz has photographed former astronauts Buzz Aldrin, James Lovell and Sally Ride for French fashion designer Louis Vuitton.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the ads will appear in magazines’ July issues together with a website, louisvuittonjourneys.com.
The campaign, with agency Ogilvy & Mather, marks the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission to the moon and is intended to be “an homage to these great travelers,” said Antoine Arnault, Vuitton’s head of communications and son of Chairman Bernard Arnault, the richest man in France. He said the astronauts each donated a “significant” portion of their modeling fee to Al Gore’s Climate Project, though he declined to specify how much.
Read all about it -Thanks Mike!
That’s a very nice photo. I’ve always enjoyed her work with Louis Vuitton and her other portraits.
I especially like the Gorbachev one.
http://got-ads.blogspot.com/2007/10/louis-vuitton-mikhail-gorbachev.html
Despite my best efforts, I can’t shake the feeling that somehow that truck could almost DRIVE to the moon.
There is just something about the composition of the picture that seems to suggest so much more. Which I guess is the overall intention of art in the first place.
This photo is captivating! Beckoning moon and stars in a glowing sky, beautiful! The faces of the astronauts say so much in themselves, contentment basking in the glow of the moon. What memories they must have! They have strived and achieved so much, thank you!
The choice of vehicle is interesting as it’s from an age when man was still earthbound. It seems to be ready and willing to take the astronauts back into space – desiring to go beyond it’s present state, like me!
The admirable donation is an inspiring example of giving of ourselves and our abundance, but the $1500 bag in the photo (that the photo is promoting) seems to be in odds with the gesture.
I have waxed philophical enough for one day.
Dea… The bag provided the money which was donated to a good cause. Works for me!
FE, I just saw what you said about the truck…I agree!
Good point! But it still seems oddly…strange.
the irony of what was once the most “modern” of memes now “recontextualized” to a rusted- while rugged past- is clear.
notice how the subjects look “outside” of their own.
at first glance it suggested ” washingtons crossing the deleware” to me.:)
I love it!!! My fav, of course, is Jim Lovell!
Awesome!!
How sad that man stopped at the Moon and didn’t keep going.
How sad that manned missions stopped at the Moon.
Barrie,
You were right the first time. It doesn’t matter that we have probes or rovers on Mars. Humanity has never gone there. No man has set foot on the planet.
For my money, in order to say that we went there, a living breathing human has to at least be in orbit of the planet. Close enough to touch so to speak.
Certainly there will be worlds in the future that we can’t touch down on, but we can say we went there because we were at least orbiting the planet.
Machines aren’t man. A camera can take a picture, but only your eyes can see the soul.
Destination: Lune
What a great image!
To infinity and beyond!
When I looked at the picture originally, I thought it was a painting…
Nice….
I’ve often wondered about whether those who have had opportunity to go to space crave the opportunity to do it again.
Love the composition!
“No man has set foot on the planet.”
…
Yet.
What a gorgeous photo. Usually I find her work a bit cutesy (she’s the one who take photos of the celebrity babies, right? Or am I confusing her with another photographer?), but this one has a lot more gravitas to it.
It helps that I have a soft spot for Sally Ride; I read her book about the Space Shuttle when I was like 7; it’s totally her fault I’m a big ol’ geek.
That photo is so evocative! I absolutely love it. The things those three people achieved are so monumental; it’s an understatement to call them “the best and the brightest.”
What I like best about the photo, though, is the sense of pride and optimism on their faces. They aren’t pining for the moon, wondering when (if ever) we’ll go back. They KNOW we will, and it will be to stay.
A unique representation of the human spirit at it’s finest. Something we see far too little of these days. I shall honor them by making this photo my new monitor wallpaper so I will be infused with that same optimism every time I turn my computer on.
Thanks for posting this, mr. Drexler. This was just the kind of uplifting image I needed to see.