Carte photographique de la lune, planche VII (Photographic Chart of the Moon, plate VII) Possibly 1909 - 1914

Charles Le Morvan made this photographic chart of the moon, sometime before 1933, with light and shadow. Imagine him, in a darkroom perhaps, coaxing this image into being. It's amazing to think about the surface of the moon rendered in tones of black and white—a gray scale world made up of craters and shadows. I imagine Le Morvan, painstakingly developing the image, watching as the moon's surface emerges from the darkness. The contrast between the stark white highlights and the deep, velvety blacks gives the surface a tangible presence, like some kind of primordial soup. Looking at the fine details, you can almost feel the texture of the lunar surface. It reminds you of other images of the moon, and the other worlds that are possible beyond our own blue planet. It makes me wonder what he was thinking when he made this image.