The Photographic Alphabet: D is for Neil DaCosta
The concept came about after chatting about childhood aspirations(with Sara Phillips the art director on the project) - as kids we remembered wanting to be astronauts, it seems like that's less likely to be on someone's lips today.
We were inspired by JFK's historic speech at Rice University which speaks to the achievements and aspirations of the times, and to recognize that the power of the sentiment is still relevant today.
"We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too." John F Kennedy, September 12 1962
And bookended by Obama’s quote in 2010,
"I understand that some believe that we should return to the surface of the moon but I have to say this bluntly, we have been there before."
We also wanted to acknowledge the end of an era in a visual way that would bring the conversation to the creative community. The incongruity of the astronaut in these situations is, we hope, compelling and humorous, and we hope that we're encouraging a younger audience to pay attention to what's going on.