". . . By choosing images of the moon with the eye of an earthly landscape photographer, Light shows over and over again how profoundly unearthly it is . . . the imagery comes closest to the pensive grace with which 2001: A Space Odyssey taught us to view the heavens. . . . In the starkness of the moon, this is a beautiful ambiguity. In the simple world of space, it is a complex work of art."
-- Oliver Morton, The Times Literary Supplement, London, 20 August 1999
". . . More than a record of a unique technical achievement, Light's selection of these images, his arrangement and juxtaposition of them, the scale at which he has reproduced them, and the lighted spaces in which he has chosen to display them, have turned them into an uncannily familiar yet unsettling gallery of landscape art . . . Light's work with the Apollo photographs reveals the capacity of the lunar surface to challenge and extend the spatialities of landscape art as profoundly as the Apollo images of Earth challenged ideas of terrestrial nature and landscape. These are the first true landscapes of an other world."
-- Denis Cosgrove, Ecumene, Winter 2001
". . . If your mind wilts at the thought of other people's vacation snaps, think again. . . . The cream of the crop has been picked by the artist and photographer Michael Light; last year, he arranged them into FULL MOON -- a large, square volume that is almost comically beautiful. . . . They were impressive enough on the page; at the [American Museum of Natural History's] Rose Center they are generously enlarged, with a corresponding increase in what astrophysicists term the Wow Factor. Our relationship with unearthly things, and hence our precarious sense of self, is transformed by such grandeur . . . The effect of FULL MOON . . . is not merely to trumpet our scientific ability but to drive home our delightful inability to make sense of the universe. . . ."
-- Anthony Lane, The New Yorker, New York, April 10, 2000
". . . In this majestically surreal world, the sky is always black, things are always still, humans insulated against the hostile environment look like aliens, and the lunar surface itself . . . is strangely fragile and tranquil . . . . The pictures . . . have a lonely splendor in poetry and a startling artistry in the finest photography."
-- Margarett Loke, The New York Times, 18 May 1999
". . . one of the finest photographic books of the year."
-- Sunday Times, London, 8 August 1999
"The book of the year. . . FULL MOON is a picture book to end all picture books . . . ."
-- Victoria Glendinning, The Daily Telegraph, London, 27 November, 1999
". . . startling images that, although taken thirty years ago, still look like the
future . . . "
-- The New Yorker, August 23 & 30, 1999
". . . remarkable . . . at once spectacular and smartly understated. Without slighting the science involved, Light brings an artist's eye to the project . . . . Even previously published photos look astonishing here due to a thorough digital scrubdown, but many more pictures were pulled out of NASA's archives by Light just for this book, and they put the astronaut's experience--of desolation, of anxiety, of wonder--in a fresh perspective."
-- Vince Aletti, The Village Voice, 14 December 1999
". . .compelling . . . Light's insightful selection of individual images and immensely sophisticated photo-montages do what great landscape art always does. Here, though, the articulation of landscape space in the new medium of space photography adds a layer of vibrancy that can make your head spin."
-- Christopher Knight, Los Angeles Times Art Review, 4 August, 2000
". . . images of dazzling clarity . . . superb."
-- John Sanford, Los Angeles Times Book Review, 13 June, 1999
". . . eerie, magnificent views . . . . Combining the best of words and images, FULL MOON comes as close as the printed page can to capturing such an incredible journey."
-- Matthew Reed Baker, Brill's Content, July/August 1999
". . . the sheer strangeness of the moon's surface is baffling and unnerving. . . . Many of these magnificently reproduced photographs are awesome or beautiful but it is on their own terms. Adjectives do not seem to survive the journey."
-- Stephen Blanchard, The Daily Telegraph, London, 19 June 1999
". . . photographer Michael Light has orchestrated a group of largely unseen and digitally enhanced images from all the missions into a narrative sequence that preserves the wonder of the most mundane shots. Shrewdly, subtly, Light links these spectacularly matter-of-fact photos to 19th-century and modern views -- to Carleton Watkins, Frederick Sommer, and Richard Misrach -- and treats them as the extraordinary landscape photographs they are."
-- VLS/The Village Voice Book Review, "Our 25 Favorite Books of 1999," December 1999
"Your book is a masterpiece -- the kind of work that elicited a gasp from me with almost every turn of the page. You achieved, through your choice of photos, exactly what I had been hoping to do in both Apollo 13 and From the Earth to the Moon-- you capture the human content of the voyages-- the nuts and bolts, the majesty, loneliness, the brazen hubris and the inspired genius -- of our going to the moon. Bravo. It is such a brilliant idea . . . I wonder why no one had ever thought of it before in the same moment. I applaud your originality. Again, bravo."
-- letter from Tom Hanks, May 1999
". . . by looking at 32,000 photographs with an artist's eye, Michael Light, a landscape photographer, has come up with a new perspective on an historic achievement . . . ."
-- The Economist, London, 24 September 1999
". . . gorgeous . . . no other book of space images competes with the quality of the images in this book. Light's determination to let the images speak for themselves is impressive. . . . As photo books go, [FULL MOON] is to most as IMAX is to movies on my VCR."
-- Astronaut Rusty Schweickart, Lunar Module Pilot, Apollo 9, Whole Earth Review, Fall 1999
". . . I do not believe I have seen such an extraordinary selection of photos compiled under one cover. You have done a wonderful job of transporting the reader right to the lunar surface. You have accomplished what Apollo 13 failed to do."
-- letter from Astronaut James A. Lovell, Commander, Apollo 13, May 1999
"FULL MOON is the closest approximation of the real thing that I've seen since being there. NASA needed Michael Light 30 years ago."
-- Astronaut David R. Scott, Commander, Apollo 15, August 1999
". . . riveting . . . . The photos . . . are eye-opening in the ways they divulge the scope of the geological experiments done on the moon, the luminous beauty of the landscape . . . and the intensely personal experiences of the 12 men who walked there. . . . Like the best histories, FULL MOON tells its story through primary stories, and its the most spine-tingling book of photography I've ever "read." "
-- Andrew Long, Salon.com, November 11, 1999
". . . monumental . . . . After spending hours lost in Light's [FULL MOON], it confirmed that his delicate sense did indeed lend brilliant form to a project which, in the hands of someone less subtle, would have crackled with the needless noise typical of publications on space travel. . . . the fruit of his labors is a stunning book at once intensely personal and harshly impersonal -- or maybe transpersonal. To try to describe these images -- of the Earth, of space, of the moon-- would be futile, but to peruse them is divine."
-- Ted Byfield, Mute, London, September-October 1999
". . . Light has an artist's eye . . . and the effect of these strange, luminous images, carefully selected and printed by him . . . is to make the Apollo moon missions seem even more remote in time than they already are. There are no familiar shots here. . . . These are haunted, abstract and strangely moving images. The lonely tracks of a rickety lunar vehicle, dwarfed by the vast, empty desert landscape, look like the ancient traces of some long-lost civilization, barely recognizable as our own."
-- Mark Horowitz, New York Magazine, New York, March 27, 2000
". . . a wonder of black-and-white photography . . . the vividly clear landscapes are a dramatic demonstration of how far our species has travelled, both physically and mentally."
-- Robin McKie, The Observer, London, 13 June 1999
". . . astonishing . . . the definitive public photographic record of our earliest visits to the Moon . . . this elegant, thrilling book, a high water mark in the art of illustrative science, takes readers on a voyage to remember."
-- Publisher's Weekly, 18 May 1999
" A strange and beautiful book . . . whose images are alluring and alien in equal measure; literally, like nothing on Earth."
-- Lawrence Norfolk, National Geographic Adventure, Fall 1999
". . . As much as FULL MOON's coffee-table format permits, we see what the lunar explorers witnessed. . . . From first image to last, FULL MOON presents anew the rich legacy of an adventure yet unmatched."
-- Mark Carreau, Houston Chronicle Book Review, 4 July 1999
". . . astounding: sharp, brilliant pictures that bring back the awe the Apollo missions evoked. Turn the pages and watch history and technology turn into art. . . . Definitely a book to buy or borrow."
-- Stephen Baxter, New Scientist, London, 17 July 1999
". . . breathtaking . . . as haunting as it is near-perfect."
-- Anne Stephenson, The Arizona Republic, June 6, 1999
"... a ravishing journey with the Apollo crew from blast-off to splashdown."
-- vJohn Banville, Irish Times, Dublin, July 20 1999
". . . stunning . . . as compelling and satisfying as a good thriller, except that the astounding effects . . . are real."
-- Carol Squiers, American Photo, July/August 1999
"Michael Light's collection of these astonishing images is a far cry from an album of snapshots. . . . This is the ultimate in landscape photography."
-- James Connor, The Herald, Glasgow, Scotland, 10 June 1999
". . . a volume packed with some of the most ravishing pictures of space ever seen."
-- Karen Petroski, TimeOut New York, June 3-10 1999
". . . stunning, and full of genuine surprises."
-- Focus Magazine, London, August 1999
". . . this isn't just another space book: it's a photographic and artistic reworking."
-- Alexandra Witze, The Dallas Morning News, 19 July 1999
". . . a compelling volume which makes you yearn for a similar catalogue from Mars."
-- Kodwo Eshun, i-D Magazine, London, September 1999
". . . stunning . . . a selection of incredibly dramatic images . . . truly awe-inspiring. The book was shipped to me unbound, and I have pinned the pictures all over my office walls."
-- Anthony Brandt, Men's Journal August 1999
"Beautiful . . . the pictures taken on the moon and the heroic journeys to it look, smell, sound and feel like art to anyone who cares to look."
-- David Bonetti, San Francisco Examiner, 6 September 1999
". . . a stunning book. . . . Only the ultimate expression of human genius could begin to contend with such awesome proof of nature. . . . Art cannot be kept out of it."
-- John McEwen, The Sunday Telegraph, London, 1 August 1999
". . . mesmerizing . . . the best part is that you feel as though you are there."
-- Helen Frangoulis, Playboy, August 1999
". . . FULL MOON is the name of a stunning book and exhibition by photographer Michael Light . . . breathtaking."
-- TimeOut London, 30 June-7 July 1999
". . . gorgeous and hallucinatory . . . a treasure."
-- Chris Nashawaty, Entertainment Weekly, 16 July 1999
". . . the photographs taken by the astronauts have finally resurfaced . . . they reveal a stunning series of outlandish images of space exploration in the age of Star Trek."
-- Dazed & Confused, London July 1999
". . . sumptuous."
-- Chad Jones, The Oakland Tribune, 21 August 1999
"FULL MOON reminds us that, for all our achievements, only a handful of us have ever been to the dark side and back."
-- Mark Hooper, ARENA, London, July/August 1999
". . . gorgeous . . . eerie and unreal . . . a bizarre, awe-inspiring world without color."
-- Glen Helfand, SFGate, 24 August 1999
". . . as if Ansel Adams had joined the astronaut core . . . you may want to buy two copies-- one to keep on the coffee table and the other to cut up so you can frame some of the pages."
-- Stuart Goldman, Sky & Telescope August 1999