Ed -- This is very much a Ralph Morse photo. His work is currently handled by Gallery M. You can see his bio page and sample work (with some classic Apollo images)here: http://www.gallerym.com/artist.cfm?ID=41 I would suggest contacting the gallery and see if they are aware of where good quality prints can be obtained. But if Time Life owns the rights -- it might be tough...and very expensive. (See note below on how Morse couldn't get an image for his Gallery M exhibition because of the rights issue.)
Neat descriptions on his bio: "Assigned to the space program during its infancy, he spent fifteen years using inventive photography to explain the astronauts and the space flights to LIFE's readers."
Chances are, after you look at some of his work, we all probably have some images from him already signed in our collections. (Such as the Gantry photo of Apollo 11 taking off.) But there are other really cool ones, too.
By the way -- I really like his baseball work, too! He photos of Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson, Hank Aaron - just amazing.
And if I'm not mistaken his autobiography is titled "The Eight Astronaut: My Life with LIFE" It is not published yet, but was referenced in a Rocky Mountain Times newspaper story back in 2003 during the launch of the Gallery M exhibition.
A neat little quote about the space program: "The images at Gallery M date back to the mid-1940s but are new prints from negatives held in the LIFE archives. Morse says he did not help in the selection. (A photograph by Morse of John Glenn's more recent trip into space is not included because of the difficulty in getting permission to show it.)
But the impact of LIFE's near-ownership of the early astronauts has remained with Morse, who was assigned to shadow Glenn during the young space program. Morse's most recent project is a book about his career. Working title: The Eighth Astronaut.
"That's what John Glenn said once. 'We had Ralph in our hair so much we called him the eighth astronaut.' "
Enjoy,
Rich
[This message has been edited by rjurek349 (edited January 06, 2005).]