MAPACA

Mid-Atlantic Popular &
American Culture Association

On almost a weekly basis, a new self-captured photograph of a spacewalking astronaut appears in the news and proclaimed as the ultimate selfie, garnering nearly as much attention as those of image-conscious celebrities. These images are not nearly as uncommon or new as the media make them out to be, particularly considering the ease with which astronauts have operated cameras during EVA for decades. There is, however, a poignant story being told through the self-images of astronauts, one rarely encouraged or illuminated by the public affairs operation at NASA.

This paper explores the nature of astronaut portraiture and self-portraits over the course of the last fifty years of spacewalking experience, when they can depict themselves as part of the space environment so dangerous to human life when not protected by an iconic white spacesuit. Just over a mere 200 humans have experienced what former astronaut Kathy Sullivan called an experience closer to swimming than walking, and monitoring their activities with still and moving photography goes back to the first missions in the early 1960s. Posing for images was quite natural and expected, within and without the spacecraft. But turning the camera around for self-portraits began thanks to one self-conscious astronaut long before the existence of a space shuttle. While that image still appears in print only occasionally, it marks the beginning of our ability to picture the suited human body in the context of the vacuum of space, opening the door for later generations of astronauts to tell their own stories through these selfies.