A World in Pictures: Sofi Tzouanakis

 

Who knew a picture filled with unabridged silence could cause the world it photographed so much disquiet? Named Earthrise, it depicts our boisterous planet shrouded in a calm blanket of pure blackness. The scene is captured from a grey expanse known as the Moon, falling suddenly into an even larger expanse of totally black space. The picture was taken during the Apollo 8 expedition, by the astronaut William Anders. He caught this snapshot while taking the first ever manned orbit around the Moon. What truly places this photo in perspective for me is my mom. She was born before this occurred in 1968 (don't ask how old she is). This was only about 50 years ago. It is strange thinking how it was possible to travel to the moon back then, but not even imagined to be doing what I am: sharing my thoughts about it to millions. I love how even through the Earth is extremist in the religion of industrialization, it does not show on the surface, the only visible points being the giant organic swirls of white over beautiful cerulean blue, with bits of green peeking out. So much has changed since then, and this picture not only shows the innovation our world is experiencing, but also how were are still so far from the answers, another universe not only expanding around us, but swallowing our Earth in its arcane (vocab word alert!) maw.