We all know Yuri Gagarin who became known in history as the first man to fly into space on April 12th 1961. So as is usual, nobody remembers the second guy. What we do not know is that Gagarin’s deputy, the Cosmonaut Guerman Titov flew into space on August 6th 1961 aboard the spaceship Vostok-2 and was the first man to take photos of the Earth from space. This made him the first space photographer.
Guerman Titov quickly overcame the disappointment that Gagarin was the first man to fly into space aboard the Vostok-1, when it was announced that he was to be on the crew aboard the Vostok-2. The objective of his mission apart from himself orbiting the Earth was to take pictures and short film stills from space.
Guerman Titov with a Konvas-Avtomat
For this reason he was given 60 hours of training to learn the operation of the Russian film camera Konvas-Avtomat which he would take with him aboard the spacecraft and basic photography lessons.
Guerman Titov not only surpassed Gagarin’s record stay in space of 108 minutes by staying in orbit around the Earth for 25 hours, he did just fine as a professional photographer-filmmaker, giving us the first pictures of the Earth from space. Titov still holds another record for being the youngest person to fly into space, as on the day of lift-off of the Vostok-2 he had not yet turned 26 years old.