The Story Behind Earth’s Most Famous Photo | The Bigger Picture with Vincent Brown | PBS

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Published 2022-08-23
How did the “Blue Marble,” as it is now known, come to be? Host Vincent Brown learns just how extraordinary a technical feat it was for Apollo 17 astronauts to snap the photograph in 1972, and how early environmentalists hoped that an image of the whole Earth might spark a desire to protect our planet.

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ABOUT THE SERIES:
Images can tell powerful stories. One iconic photograph can symbolize an entire era. But if we expand the frame and examine the moment in which it was taken, a very different story can emerge. In this series of documentary shorts, Harvard University historian Dr. Vincent Brown meets with curators, photographers and other experts to challenge common assumptions about iconic American images.

THE BIGGER PICTURE is a co-production of Timestamp Media LLC and The WNET Group, in association with Harvard University’s History Design Studio at the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research, and Vision Maker Media.

Additional Ironbound Community photographs by Patricia Cortado.

Major funding for THE BIGGER PICTURE was provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Additional funding was provided by the Anderson Family Charitable Fund, the Tamara L. Harris Foundation, the William Talbott Hillman Foundation, the Phillip and Edith Leonian Foundation and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Additional funding for the digital production of THE BIGGER PICTURE was provided by Chasing the Dream – a public media initiative from The WNET Group, reporting on poverty, opportunity, and justice in America, and supported by The JPB Foundation, The Peter G. Peterson and Joan Ganz Cooney Fund and Sue and Edgar Wachenheim, III.
All Comments (21)
  • @stuartvaughan8298
    Monstrum sent me over. This is a quality piece of reporting and documentary.
  • @seijirou302
    Matt from Spacetime sent me here and I really enjoyed this history lesson and perspective! Keep up the great work!
  • @Imperiused
    "Sometimes we need to see things close up, to see the bigger picture." What an excellent sign off. And I couldn't help but immediately think of Journey to the Microcosmos! :D
  • @redgaek
    Thanks Joe and Be Smart for the recommendation
  • @PadraigG8
    Monstrum sent me. Great show. It doesn't hurt that Professor Brown is an incredibly beautiful man.
  • @MrPauld123456
    PBS spacetime sent me. This is AAA content. Loving it.
  • @SmileyGirlArtist
    Monstrum sent me here! What a great picture to kick off this series with 😊
  • @RichMcLaughlin
    "Be Smart" sent me over, what a fascinating video, thank you!
  • @Shahrezad1
    Monstrum recommended this. I enjoyed it immensely and it made me ponder things quite a bit.
  • @davidgould9431
    Great documentary. Not treating the environment as something external to us is a huge point that I hadn't really grasped before. That will take a bit of internalising. Thanks. And thanks to Matt from PBS Spacetime for pointing me this way.
  • @Swishy_Blue
    PBSKids grow up to be PBS adults. Always good, always ❤
  • @cartermcmahon
    PBS Spacetime sent me! Edit: This is a great video, and I'm definitely going to be watching more of this series!
  • @JaneShevtsov
    Terrific video! I would add that there's a second meaning to the Blue Marble image that may well have been the primary one when it was taken. The big difference between photos of the Earth from space, especially this one, and traditional maps is what the photos DON'T show -- national boundaries. During the Cold War, seeing Earth as an undivided whole must have been particularly striking. Indeed, when you look at quotations from astronauts of different eras, one of the key themes that emerges is this sense of a whole, undivided planet.
  • @njlkerins
    Recommended by Monstrum. Looking forward to many more such excellent episodes!
  • @felipericketts
    The blue marble image makes it so that it is obvious, to me, that we have to think of us, all of, together. Our home got smaller and its fragility, our fragility, more obvious. Thanks, glad I found this channel! 🙂
  • @asecretturning
    I love the questions he's asking, precise but illuminating 👍