First Fleet: NASA's Space Shuttle Program 1981-1986

(Hardback)

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Description

The photographs in "First Fleet" serve as a time capsule of a unique time in the history of manned spaceflight.John Chakeres' "First Fleet" began more then 30 years ago with the launch of the first Space Shuttle Columbia in 1981. With permission to photograph the Shuttle operations at the Kennedy Space Center and in 1981, begun the five-year project photographing the Space Shuttle. The images in "First Fleet" are both majestic, symbolic, and gave the viewer a sense of what was required to fly such a complex piece of technology. One can feel that the images are filled with excitement and optimism about the future of space travel.

Reviews

"..a striking homage to a glorious time in space travel...", - Wired, October 1, 2018 ...capturing the magic and majesty of the missions that captivated the nation., - My Modern Met, October 29, 2018 Also featured by: Bloomberg Businessweek, Artdaily

Author Bio

John A. Chakeres has been an artist working in photography more then 40 years. He has published three books of his photographs, Traces: An Investigation in Reason, 1977, Dart Objects: A Collaboration. 1978, and Random New York: An Unscripted Walk, 2008. His photographs have been included in numinous exhibitions and publications and are in a number of permanent collections including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, Bibliothque Nationale de France, Paris, FR, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, IL, Southeast Museum of Photography, Daytona Beach, FL, Monterey Museum of Art, Monterey, CA and Tweed Museum of Art, Duluth, MN. He has taught photography, printmaking, and digital imaging at Ohio University, Columbus College of Art and Design, and Columbus State Community College. Leland Melvin is a former NFL draftee who became an engineer and a NASA astronaut logging more than 565 hours aboard the shuttle Atlantis. Melvin was appointed the head of NASA Education in 2010 and served as co-chair of a White House STEM task force. He has hosted the television series "Child Genius" and has been a judge on the TV series "BattleBots." In 2017 HarperCollins published his first memoir, Chasing Space: An Astronauts Story of Grit, Grace, and Second Chances. W.M. Hunt/Dancing Bear is a photography collector, curator and consultant who lives and works in New York. Hunt has been collecting, looking at and talking about photography for over 40 years. His two biggest book and exhibition projects have been The Unseen Eye: Photographs from the Unconscious and Hunts Three Ring Circus - Photographs of American Groups before 1950. He writes, teaches, lectures, does panels, reviews portfolios, and judges competitions. He serves on the board of the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund and was the founding partner of the gallery Hasted Hunt.