Apollo 12: Self-Portrait.

Is this image art? 50 years ago, Apollo 12 astronaut-photographer Charles “Pete” Conrad recorded this masterpiece while documenting colleague Alan Bean 's lunar soil collection activities on Oceanus Procellarum . The featured image is dramatic and stark . The harsh environment of the Moon 's Ocean of Storms is echoed in Bean's helmet, a perfectly composed reflection of Conrad and the lunar horizon . Works of photojournalists originally intent on recording the human condition on planet Earth , such as Lewis W. Hine 's images from New York City in the early 20th century, or Margaret Bourke-White 's magazine photography are widely regarded as art . Similarly many documentary astronomy and space images might also be appreciated for their artistic and esthetic appeal .