Paris, France — You can take a journey into space and see our planet Earth rise, right in the heart of Paris. An intriguing and unique exhibition of photographs from NASA space missions is currently underway at the Galerie GADCOLLECTION on the edge of the Marais and the banks of the Seine. Fittingly entitled Earthrise/Earth Curve, the photographs on display emanate from the NASA’s Mercury-Atlas and Apollo Missions and depict our planet Earth from space. Some 50 photographs are on display and the exhibition explores for the first time the subject of the Earthrise. It also marks the first time that the very first photos of Earth seen from space from the photographs of the Mercury 4  and Mercury-Atlas 9 missions are being shown. 

One of the most famous Earthrise images was captured during the Apollo 8 mission in 1968. This photograph showed the Earth as a blue and white orb, rising above the arid lunar landscape. The image has been widely reproduced and has become an iconic symbol of the space age. Apollo 11 was the very first lunar landing and the images are historical and thoroughly spectacular like the earth rising with the lunar module, the famous Eagle, and the surface of the Moon in the foreground. The Galerie GADCOLLECTION also has a stunning collection of space-oriented pictures including a signed picture of Buzz Aldrin on the moon and it is clearly worth a detour, albeit to one of the most beautiful neighborhoods in Paris. 

Gad Edery founded the Galerie GADCOLLECTION in 2008 and for the past 15 years it has been dedicated to the masters of modern and contemporary photography. It took 5 months to put the Earthrising exhibition together largely due to the difficulty of identifying the regions of the planet Earth that are depicted in those from the Mercury-Atlas missions which apparently were not documented. For example a photograph from the Mercury-Atlas 9 mission that was originally believed to be the Senegalese coast in fact turned out to be Aden in Yemen. All of the prints, many of which are being shown to the public for the very first time and which are in exceptional condition, are available for sale. The exhibition is on until May 9th but space oriented photos can be viewed all of the time at the gallery. ©Trish Valicenti for The Gourmet Gazette. Galerie GADCOLLECTION, 4 rue du Pont Louis Philippe, 75004, Paris, + 33 (0) 1 43 70 72 59. Tues-Fri, 2pm to 7pm and Sat-Sun, 2:30pm to 7pm. https://www.gadcollection.com/en/