List of photographs considered the most important

|+

!Image

!Title

!Date

!Photographer

!Location

!Format

!Notes

!Cited survey(s)

|View from the Window at Le Gras ({{Langx|fr|Point de vue du Gras|links=no}})

|1826

|Nicéphore Niépce

|Saint-Loup-de-Varennes, France

|Bitumen-coated pewter plate

|Considered the oldest surviving camera photograph.

|

|Windows From Inside South Gallery{{Efn|Talbot's 1835 photograph has also been referred to as Lacock Oriel Window (Latticed Window) or simply Latticed Window.

|August 1835

|William Henry Fox Talbot

|Lacock, England, United Kingdom

|Photogenic drawing negative

|The earliest surviving photographic negative and the earliest surviving paper photograph.

|

|The Artist's Studio

|1837

|Louis Daguerre

|Paris, France

|Daguerreotype

|

|

|Boulevard du Temple

|1838

|Louis Daguerre

|Paris, France

|Daguerreotype

|The earliest surviving photograph depicting people: a person working as a shoeshiner and an individual having his shoes shined.

|

|Self‐Portrait as a Drowned Man{{Efn|Also known as Le Noyé ({{Lit|The drowned man}}).}}

|18 October 1840

|Hippolyte Bayard

|Paris, France{{Cite book |last=Lerner |first=Jullian |title=Experimental self-portraits in early French photography |date=2021 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-5013-4495-4 |series=Routledge history of photography |location=Abingdon, Oxon New York |pages=27}}

|Direct Positive

|Possibly the earliest known staged photograph, created in protest to the French government's apparent neglect of the invention of his photographic process.{{Citation |last=Fletcher |first=Jane |editor-first1=Angela |editor-last1=Nicholson |title=staged photography |date=2005 |work=The Oxford Companion to the Photograph |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780198662716.001.0001/acref-9780198662716-e-1462 |access-date=2024-02-16 |publisher=Oxford University Press |language=en |doi=10.1093/acref/9780198662716.001.0001 |isbn=978-0-19-866271-6|url-access=subscription }}{{Citation |last=Keeler |first=Nancy B. |editor-first1=Angela |editor-last1=Nicholson |title=Bayard, Hippolyte |date=2005 |work=The Oxford Companion to the Photograph |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780198662716.001.0001/acref-9780198662716-e-136 |access-date=2024-02-24 |publisher=Oxford University Press |language=en |doi=10.1093/acref/9780198662716.001.0001 |isbn=978-0-19-866271-6|url-access=subscription }}

|

|The Haystack

|1844{{Efn|The Metropolitan Museum of Art dates their copy of Talbot's Haystack as "probably 1841". The National Gallery of Canada dates it to April 1844.

|William Henry Fox Talbot

|Lacock, England, United Kingdom{{Cite web |title=The Haystack (The J. Paul Getty Museum Collection) |url=https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/108GH7 |access-date=2024-02-14 |website=The J. Paul Getty Museum Collection |language=en}}

|Calotype

|A photograph that appeared in The Pencil of Nature, the first photographically illustrated book to be commercially published.Glasgow University Library, Special Collections Department. [http://special.lib.gla.ac.uk/exhibns/month/Feb2007.html Book of the month. February 2007. William Henry Fox Talbot. The Pencil of Nature.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110611071313/https://special.lib.gla.ac.uk/exhibns/month/Feb2007.html|date=2011-06-11}} Retrieved 6 October 2008.

|

!Image

!Title

!Date

!Photographer

!Location

!Format

!Notes

!Cited survey(s)

|The Mime Charles Deburau as Pierrot

|1854

|Nadar

|Paris, France

|Salt print

|The photograph is part of a series taken during the 1850s.{{Efn|View full collection of photographs at Wikimedia Commons.}}

|

|The Cook House of the 8th Hussars

|April 1855

|Roger Fenton

|Crimea

|Salt print

|

|

|Valley of the Shadow of Death

|23 April 1855

|Roger Fenton

|Sevastopol, Crimea

|Wet collodion negative

|Fenton's pictures during the Crimean War were one of the first cases of war photography, with Valley of the Shadow of Death considered "the most eloquent metaphor of warfare" by The Oxford Companion to the Photograph.{{Citation |last=Travis |first=David |title=The Valley of the Shadow of Death |date=2003 |url=https://www.artic.edu/artworks/123407/the-valley-of-the-shadow-of-death |access-date=2024-02-25}}{{Citation |last=Taylor |first=Roger |editor-first1=Angela |editor-last1=Nicholson |title=Fenton, Roger |date=2005 |work=The Oxford Companion to the Photograph |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780198662716.001.0001/acref-9780198662716-e-530 |access-date=2024-02-25 |publisher=Oxford University Press |language=en |doi=10.1093/acref/9780198662716.001.0001 |isbn=978-0-19-866271-6|url-access=subscription }}

|

|Sergeant Dawson and his Daughter

|1855

|Unknown; attributed to John Jabez Edwin Mayall{{Cite book |last=Bogre |first=Michelle Bogre, Michelle |url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9780240812762/photography-activism-michelle-bogre-michelle-bogre |title=Photography as Activism: Images for Social Change |date=2011-09-11 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-240-81276-2 |location=London |pages=20 |doi=10.4324/9780240812762}}

|Unknown{{Efn|If the photographer is Mayall, then the location would be London, England as he was present there at the time.{{Cite book |last=Hannavy |first=John |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Kd5cAgAAQBAJ |title=Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Photography |date=2013-12-16 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-87327-1 |pages=907 |language=en}}}}

|Unknown (likely albumen print)

|

|

|The Brig{{Efn|Gustave Le Grey's The Brig is also referred to as Brig on the Water and The Brig in Moonlight.|name=|group=}}

|1856

|Gustave Le Gray

|Normandy, France

|Albumen print

|

|

|Portrait of Nariakira Shimazu

|17 September 1857

|Shiro Ichiki

|Satsuma Domain, Japan

|Daguerreotype

|Oldest daguerreotype by a Japanese author;Fuminori Yokoe ({{nihongo2|横江 文憲}}, Yokoe Fuminori), "Ichiki Shirō", Nihon shashinka jiten ({{nihongo2|日本写真家事典}}) / 328 Outstanding Japanese Photographers (Kyoto: Tankōsha, 2000; {{ISBN|4-473-01750-8}}), p.41. {{in lang|ja}} (In Japanese only, despite the English title.) first photo designated an Important Cultural Property by the government of Japan in 1999.{{Cite web |last=Ono |first=Philbert |date=2002 |title=PhotoHistory 1999 – PHOTOGUIDE.JP |url=https://photoguide.jp/txt/PhotoHistory_1999 |access-date=2024-03-05 |website=photoguide.jp}}

|

|Isambard Kingdom Brunel Standing Before the Launching Chains of the Great Eastern{{Efn|Robert Howlett's image is referred to as Isambard Kingdom Brunel before the Launch of the Leviathan in The Oxford Companion to the Photograph.}}

|November 1857

|Robert Howlett

|London, England

|Glass plate

|Landmark environmental portraiture and iconography of the Industrial Revolution and 19th century.

|

|Two Ways of Life

|1857

|Oscar Gustave Rejlander

|Wolverhampton, England{{Cite web|url=http://www.historywebsite.co.uk/articles/photos/Rejlander/Rejlander2.htm|title=Oscar Gustav: The Early Years at Wolverhampton Rejlander|website=www.historywebsite.co.uk}}

|Albumen print

|

|

|La Vallée de l'Huisne (River Scene)

|1857

|Camille Silvy

|Nogent-le-Rotrou, France

|Albumen print

|

|

|Fading Away

|1858

|Henry Peach Robinson

|Warwickshire, England, United Kingdom{{Cite web |title=Fading Away (x1984-1) |url=https://artmuseum.princeton.edu/collections/objects/15529 |access-date=2024-02-15 |website=artmuseum.princeton.edu |language=en}}

|Albumen print

|

|

!Image

!Title

!Date

!Photographer

!Location

!Format

!Notes

!Cited survey(s)

|Abraham Lincoln

|27 February 1860

|Mathew Brady

|New York City, United States

|Gelatin silver print

|Taken shortly before Lincoln's Cooper Institute speech. Widely used in his campaign during the 1860 presidential election, both Brady's photo and the speech helped him become president.{{Cite magazine |date= |title=Abraham Lincoln {{!}} 100 Photographs |url=http://100photos.time.com/photos/abraham-lincoln-mathew-brady |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200203023115/http://100photos.time.com/photos/abraham-lincoln-mathew-brady |archive-date=3 February 2020 |access-date=6 March 2024 |magazine=TIME}}

|

|Guardian Angel, One Person Praying

|c. 1860

|Unknown

|London, England, United Kingdom

|Albumen print

|

|

|Boston, As the Eagle and the Wild Goose See It

|13 October 1860

|James Walice Black

|Boston, Massachusetts, United States

|Glass plate

|

|

|Cathedral Rock

|1861

|Carleton Watkins

|Yosemite National Park, California, United States

|Albumen print

|

|

|The Dead of Antietam{{Efn|Alexander Gardener's 1862 The Dead of Antietam is also referred to as Civil War Battlefield or Bodies on the battlefield at Antietam.

|1862

|Alexander Gardner

|Antietam, Maryland, United States

|Large-format glass plate

| Showing the aftermath of the Battle of Antietam—the deadliest single day in the American Civil War

|

|The Scourged Back

|{{Circa|2 April 1863}}

|McPherson & Oliver

|Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States

|Albumen print

|One of the most widely distributed photos of the abolitionist movement.

|

|Cartes de Visite

|May - August 1863

|Andre Adolphe Disderi

|Paris, France

|Albumen print

|

|

|The Home of a Rebel Sharpshooter, Gettysburg

|July 1863

|Alexander Gardner

|Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, United States

|Large-format glass plate

|

|

|Sarah Bernhardt

|1864

|Nadar

|Paris, France

|Glass plate

|

|

|Wanted Poster

|20 April 1865

|Unknown

|United States

|Unknown

|Broadside advertising reward for capture of Lincoln assassination conspirators, illustrated with photographic prints of John H. Surratt, John Wilkes Booth, and David E. Herold.

|

|Execution of the Lincoln Conspirators at Washington Arsenal

|7 July 1865

|Alexander Gardner

|Washington, D.C., United States

|Albumen print

|

|

|Portrait of Sir John Herschel

|1867

|Julia Margaret Cameron

|Hawkhurst, England, United Kingdom

|Carbon print

|Herschel would later be the godfather to Cameron's firstborn.{{Cite book |last1=Cox |first1=Julian |url=https://archive.org/details/juliamargaretcam0000coxj |title=Julia Margaret Cameron: The Complete Photographs |last2=Ford |first2=Colin |date=2003 |publisher=Getty Publications |isbn=0-89236-681-8 |location=Los Angeles, CA |pages=15 |url-access=registration}}

|

|Call, I Follow, I Follow, Let Me Die!

|1867

|Julia Margaret Cameron

|Hawkhurst, England, United Kingdom

|Carbon print

|

|

|Close No. 193 High Street

|1868

|Thomas Annan

|Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom

|Photogravure

|

|

|East and West Shaking Hands at Laying Last Rail

|10 May 1869

|Andrew J. Russell

|Promontory, Utah, United States

|Glass plate

|The ceremony for the driving of the golden spike at Promontory Summit, Utah, on May 10, 1869; completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad. Central Pacific Railroad (left), meets Union Pacific Railroad (right) and exchange bottles of water from the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.

|

!Image

!Title

!Date

!Photographer

!Location

!Format

!Notes

!Cited survey(s)

|Old Faithful

|1870

|William Henry Jackson

|Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, United States

|Mammoth-format plate

|

|

|Great Falls of the Yellowstone River

|1871

|William Henry Jackson

|Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, United States

|Albumen print

|

|

|Chicago Fire

|October 1871

|Unknown

|Chicago, Illinois, United States

|Unknown

|

|

|Ancient Ruins in the Canyon de Chelly

|1873

|Timothy O'Sullivan

|Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Arizona, United States

|Albumen print

|

|

|Steinway Hall

|2 December 1873

|Unknown

|New York City, United States

|Halftone print

|Steinway Hall on East 14th Street, between University Place and Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. The first halftone print of a photo used in a periodical in the United States.

|

|Composite Portraits of Criminal Types

|1877

|Francis Galton

|London, England, United Kingdom

|Unknown

|

|

|The Horse in Motion

|June 1878

|Eadweard Muybridge

|Palo Alto, California, United States

|Composite from multiple glass plates

|Series of cabinet cards regarded as a precursor to motion pictures. Pictured left is the variant Sallie Gardner at a Gallop, which further captured a horse's motion.

|

!Image

!Title

!Date

!Photographer

!Location

!Format

!Notes

!Cited survey(s)

|Street Arabs in the Area of Mulberry Street

|1880

|Jacob Riis

|New York City, United States

|Gelatin silver print

|

|

|Water Rats

|1886

|Frank Meadow Sutcliffe

|Whitby, England, United Kingdom

|Albumen print

|

|

|Bandits' Roost, 59 1/2 Mulberry Street

|1888

|Jacob Riis

|Mulberry Bend, New York City, United States

|Gelatin silver print

|Part of How the Other Half Lives, an early photojournalist publication pursuing better conditions for the lower class of New York City. The photo and publication's impact was such that they contributed to the crime-ridden Bend's replacement with Columbus Park.{{Cite web |title=Jacob Riis Paintings, Bio, Ideas |url=https://www.theartstory.org/artist/riis-jacob/ |website=The Art Story}}Michael Burgan, Exposing Hidden Worlds: How Jacob Riis' Photos Became Tools for Social Reform, Compass Point Books, 2018, pp. 8–9

|

!Image

!Title

!Date

!Photographer

!Location

!Format

!Notes

!Cited survey(s)

|The Hand of Mrs. Wilhelm Röntgen

|1895

|Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen

|Würzburg, Kingdom of Bavaria, Germany

|X-ray

|The first X-ray, taken by its inventor, featured his wife's hand and ring.

|

|Shroud of Turin negative

|1898

|Secondo Pia

|Turin, Italy

|Negative

|Photographic negative of an ancient cloth relic shows details of a scourged and crucified human body

|

|Organ Player and Singing Girl

|1898

|Eugène Atget

|Paris, France

|Gelatin silver print

|

|

|Portrait of Emil Racoviță

|1899

|Louis Boutan

|Banyuls-sur-Mer, France

|Glass plate

|First underwater portrait, and the first taken by a camera designed for underwater photography.{{Cite web |last=Cade |first=DL |date=2 September 2016 |title=This is the World's First Underwater Portrait, Taken in 1899 |url=https://petapixel.com/2016/09/02/worlds-first-underwater-portrait-taken-1899 |access-date=6 March 2024 |website=PetaPixel}}

|

!Image

!Title

!Date

!Photographer

!Location

!Format

!Notes

!Cited survey(s)

|A Sea of Steps

|1903

|Frederick H. Evans

|Wells Cathedral, England, United Kingdom

|Large Format

|One of Evans's finest works in architectural photography.

|

|First Flight

|17 December 1903

|John T. Daniels

|Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, United States

|Glass plate

|Captured flight of the first airplane, the Wright Flyer, flown by inventors Orville and Wilbur Wright.

|

|The Vanishing Race–Navaho

|1904

|Edward S. Curtis

|Arizona, United States{{Cite book |url=http://archive.org/details/photographictime4419unse |title=The Photographic times |date=1905 |publisher=New York : Photographic Times Pub. Assn. |others=Getty Research Institute |pages=125}}

|Photogravure

|Taken during the cultural assimilation of Native Americans while also popularizing the Vanishing Indian stereotype.

|

|The Flatiron

|1904

|Edward Steichen

|New York City, United States

|Blue-green pigment gum bichromate over platinum print

|

|

|The Pond—Moonlight

|1904

|Edward Steichen

|Mamaroneck, New York, United States

|Multiple gum bichromate print over platinum

|Pictorialist hand-colored photograph; only three versions exist. In 2006, a print became the most expensive photo sold.{{cite web |title=Important Photographs from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Including Works from the Gilman Paper Company Collection / Lot 6 |url=https://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2006/important-photographs-from-the-metropolitan-museum-of-art-including-works-from-the-gilman-paper-company-collection-n08165/lot.6.html |access-date=April 17, 2022 |website=Sotheby's}}{{cite news |last=Tooth |first=Roger |date=February 15, 2006 |title=At $2.9m, Pond-Moonlight becomes world's most expensive photograph |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/feb/15/usa.arts |work=The Guardian}}

|

|An Oasis in the Badlands

|1905

|Edward S. Curtis

|South Dakota, United States

|Glass plate

|

|

|Bichonnade in Flight

|1905

|Jacques Henri Lartigue

|Paris, France

|Gelatin silver print

|

|

|San Francisco Earthquake

|18 April 1906

|Arnold Genthe

|San Francisco, California, United States

|Unknown (likely gelatin silver print)

|

|

|The Steerage

|1907

|Alfred Stieglitz

|Aboard the SS Kaiser Wilhelm II, possibly anchored at Plymouth, England, United Kingdom{{Citation |last=Stieglitz |first=Alfred |title=The Steerage |date=1907 |url=https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.204623.html |access-date=2024-02-18}}

|Glass plate

|Landmark modernist photo depicting immigrants on the SS Kaiser Wilhelm II.

|

|Child Laborer in Newberry, South Carolina Cotton Mill{{Efn|Also titled Cotton Mill Girl''.

The collection item for the Library of Congress gives a much longer title that includes commentary from the photographer: A little spinner in the Mollahan Mills, Newberry, S.C. She was tending her "sides" like a veteran, but after I took the photo, the overseer came up and said in an apologetic tone that was pathetic, "She just happened in." Then a moment later he repeated the information. The mills appear to be full of youngsters that "just happened in," or " are helping sister." Dec. 3, 08. Witness Sara R. Hine. Location: Newberry, South Carolina.{{Cite web|title=A little spinner in the Mollahan Mills, Newberry, S.C. She was tending her "sides" like a veteran, but after I took the photo, the overseer came up and said in an apologetic tone that was pathetic, "She just happened in." Then a moment later he repeated the information. The mills appear to be full of youngsters that "just happened in," or " are helping sister." Dec. 3, 08. Witness Sara R. Hine. Location: Newberry, South Carolina / Photo by Lewis W. Hine.|url=https://www.loc.gov/resource/nclc.01451/|access-date=2021-03-06|website=Library of Congress}}}}''

|1908

|Lewis Hine

|Newberry, South Carolina, United States

|Glass plate

|Part of a series by the National Child Labor Committee to have child labor laws passed.

|

|The North Pole

|6 April 1909

|Robert E. Perry

|Arctic Ocean

|

|

|

|Cactus Hot Air Balloon

|1909

|Léon Gimpel

|Paris, France

|Autochrome

|

|

!Image

!Title

!Date

!Photographer

!Location

!Format

!Notes

!Cited survey(s)

|Breaker Boys

|1911

|Lewis Hine

|Pittston, Pennsylvania, United States

|Unknown (likely gelatin silver print)

|Part of a series by the National Child Labor Committee to have child labor laws passed.

|

|Triangle Shirtwaist Fire

|25 March 1911

|Brown Brothers

|New York City, United States

|

|

|

|The South Pole

|14 December 1911

|Bjorn Finstad

|Antarctica

|

|

|

|Girl with a Mirror

|1912{{Cite book |last1=McCauley |first1=Elizabeth Anne |url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/982652289 |title=Clarence H. White and his world: the art & craft of photography, 1895–1925 |last2=Bunnell |first2=Peter C. |last3=White |first3=Clarence H. |date=2017 |publisher=Princeton University Art Museum |others=Princeton University, Davis Museum and Cultural Center, Portland Museum of Art, Cleveland Museum of Art |isbn=978-0-300-22908-0 |location=Princeton, New Jersey |oclc=982652289}}

|Clarence H. White

|New York City, United States

|Platinum print

|

|

|1912

|E.J. Bellocq

|New Orleans, Louisiana, United States

|

|

|

|Une Delage au Grand Prix de l'Automobile Club de France de 1912

|1912

|Jacques-Henri Lartigue

|Dieppe, France

|Large Format

|This photo depicts {{Ill|René Croquet|fr}}, with his riding mechanic.{{Efn|Also titled Grand Prix of the Automobile Club de France, 1912 or Automobile Delage, Grand Prix de l'Automobile-Club de France, Le Tréport, 26 juin 1912 Sources including the Oxford University Press, erroneously claimed this photograph to be taken in 1912 (as dated by Lartique himself later) when it took place in 1913. The driver, identified as René Croquet, raced as No. 20 in 1912; he was driving a Théophile Schneider in both races, neither in a Delage. There was no No. 6 in the 1912 race. }}{{Cite web |date=2014-05-31 |title=[5] Le Grand Prix Automobile de l'ACF 1913 à Amiens – Les publicités d'antan |url=http://pubdantan.canalblog.com/archives/2013/08/04/27780157.html |access-date=2023-11-23 |website=pubdantan.canalblog.com |language=fr}}{{Cite web |title=Jacques-Henri Lartigue {{!}} Le Grand Prix A.C.F. |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/283256 |access-date=2023-11-23 |website=The Metropolitan Museum of Art |language=en}}{{Cite web |date=2017-09-18 |title=The story of a photography |url=http://www.diptyqueparis-memento.com/en/the-story-of-a-photography/ |access-date=2023-11-23 |website=memento |language=en-US}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2021/classic-photographs/automobile-delage-grand-prix-de-lautomobile-club|title=Automobile Delage, Grand Prix de l'Automobile-Club de France, Le Tréport, 26 juin 1912 | Classic Photographs | 2021|website=Sotheby's}}

|

|Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney

|15 January 1913

|Baron Adolphe de Meyer

|New York City, United States

|

|

|

|Trampled by the Kings Horse

|4 June 1913

|Arthur Barrett

|United Kingdom

|

|Emily Davison is struck by King George's horse, Anmer, and knocked unconscious. She died four days later from a fractured skull.

|

|Abstraction, Porch Shadows{{Efn|Also referred to as Abstraction, Porch Shadows, Connecticut and Abstraction, Shadows of a Veranda, Connecticut.}}

|1916{{Efn|Also dated to 1913 and 1915.}}

|Paul Strand

|Salisbury, Connecticut, United States

|Silver-platinum print

|

|

|Passport of Isadora Duncan

|1916

|Copied by Brad Trent

|United States

|

|

|

|Blind Woman, New York

|1916

|Paul Strand

|New York City, United States

|Large format camera with trick lens and right-angle mirror

|

|

|Cottingley Fairies

|1917

|Elsie Wright

|Cottingley, West Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom

|Glass plate

|

|

|German Trenches Near Reims

|1918

|Julien Bryan

|Reims, France

|

|

|

!Image

!Title

!Date

!Photographer

!Location

!Format

!Notes

!Cited survey(s)

|Armco Steel

|1922

|Edward Weston

|Middletown, Ohio, United States

|Gelatin silver print

|

|

|Le Violon d'Ingres

|1924

|Man Ray

|Paris, France

|Unknown

|The photograph depicts Alice Prin, known as Kiki de Montparnasse, from the back and nude to below her waist. Two f-holes are painted on her back to make her body resemble a violin.

|

|Movement Study

|1926

|Rudolf Koppitz

|Vienna, Austria

|Gelatin silver print on carte-postale

|

|

|Kiki with African Mask

|1926

|Man Ray

|Paris, France

|Gelatin silver print

|

|

|Charles Lindbergh, Croydon Aerodrome

|29 May 1927

|Pacific and Atlantic photos inc.

|London, England, United Kingdom

|

|

|

|Monolith, the Face of Half Dome

|1927

|Ansel Adams

|Yosemite National Park, California, United States

|Glass plate

|

|

|Bricklayer

|1928

|August Sander

|Cologne, Germany

|Gelatin silver print

|

|

|The Pastry Cook

|1928

|August Sander

|Cologne, Germany

|Large format

|

|

|Woman of Tehuantapec

|1929

|Tina Modotti

|Tehuantepec, Mexico

|

|

|

!

!Title

!Date

!Photographer

!Location

!Format

!Notes

!Cited survey(s)

|The Hague

|3 January 1930

|Erich Salomon

|The Hague, the Netherlands

|

|

|

|Al Capone Mug Shot

|8 May 1930

|Miami Police Department{{Cite web |title=[Two "mug shots" of Al Capone made by the Miami police; head-and-shoulders portrait facing right and head-and-shoulders portrait facing front] |url=https://www.loc.gov/item/99404655/ |access-date=2022-08-01 |website=Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA}}

|Miami, United States

|

|

|

|Pepper No. 30

|2 August 1930

|Edward Weston

|Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, United States

|8x10 large format view camera

|With carefully crafted tones of light, this photo of a pepper emphasizes third-dimensional depth while defying conventional interpretations of form.

|

|Lynching

|7 August 1930

|Lawrence Beitier

|Marion, Indiana, United States

|

|

|

|Larmes

|1930

|Man Ray

|Paris, France

|Gelatin silver print

|The photograph is an extreme close-up of a woman's upturned face with glass droplets placed on her cheeks to imitate tears.

|

|1930

|Man Ray

|Paris, France

|

|

|

|Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare

|1932

|Henri Cartier-Bresson

|Paris, France

|35 mm

|

|

|Brussels

|1932

|Henri Cartier-Bresson

|Brussels, Belgium

|

|

|

|Couple in Raccoon Coats

|1932

|James Van Der Zee

|New York City, United States

|Unknown

|

|

|Io + gatto (I + Cat)

|1932

|Wanda Wulz

|Trieste, Italy

|Gelatin silver print

|

|

|Lunch atop a Skyscraper

|20 September 1932

|Photographer cannot be attributed with certainty – see article

|New York City, United States

|

|

|

|Bonnie and Clyde

|1933

| W. D. Jones

|United States

|

|

|

|Girl with a Leica

|1934

|Alexander Rodchenko

|Moscow, Moscow Oblast, Russia

|

|

|

|Hitler at a Nazi Party Rally

|1934

|Heinrich Hoffmann

|Bückeburg, Germany

|

|

|

|Surgeon's Photograph

|1934

|Ian Wetherell

|Loch Ness, Scotland, United Kingdom

|

|

|

|First AP Wirephoto

|1 January 1935

|Thomas Sande

|Adirondack Mountains, New York, United States

|

|

|

|Lady Milbanke as 'Queen of the Amazons'

|1935

|Yevonde Middleton

|London, England

|

|

|

|Migrant Mother

|6 March 1936

|Dorothea Lange

|Nipomo, California, United States

|Large format

|The photograph depicts Florence Owens Thompson, a destitute mother during the Great Depression.

|

|Jesse Owens Salute

|August 1936

|Heinrich Hoffmann

|Berlin, Germany

|Gelatin silver print

|

|

|The Falling Soldier

|1936

|Robert Capa

|Espejo, Spain

|35 mm

|The photograph depicts the death of Republican soldier Federico Borrell García in the Spanish Civil War.

|

|Fort Peck Dam

|1936

|Margaret Bourke-White

|Fort Peck, Montana, United States

|

|

|

|Goldfish Bowl

|1937

|Herbert List

|Santorini, Greece

|

|

|

|The Louisville Flood

|1937

|Margaret Bourke-White

|Louisville, Kentucky, United States

|Large format

|

|

|The Lambeth Walk

|1937

|Bill Brandt

|London, United Kingdom

|

|

|

|The Hindenburg Disaster

|6 May 1937

|Sam Shere

|Manchester Township, New Jersey, United States

|Unknown

|The photograph depicts the Hindenburg Zeppelin on fire at the mooring mast of Lakehurst.

|

|Bloody Saturday

|28 August 1937

|H. S. Wong

|Shanghai, China

|35 mm

|The photograph depicts a baby in bombed-out ruins in Shanghai.

|

|Juvisy, France

|1938

|Henri Cartier‐Bresson

|Juvisy-sur-Orge, France

|Gelatin silver print

|

|

|Louis Knocks Out Schmeling

|1938

|Unknown

|Bronx, New York, United States

|

|

|

|Mainbocher Corset

|1939

|Horst P. Horst

|Paris, France

|Large format

|

|

|Aerial View of Manhattan

|1939

|Margaret Bourke-White

|New York City, United States

|

|

|

|Mulberry Street

|1939

|Weegee

|New York City, United States

|

|

|

|Anne Frank

|May 1939

|Polyfoto

|Amsterdam, Netherlands

|

|

|

!Image

!Title

!Date

!Photographer

!Location

!Format

!Notes

!Cited survey(s)

|Aryan Race Determination Tests

|1940

|Henry Guttman

|Germany

|

|

|

|St Paul's Survives

|July 1940

|Herbert Mason

|London, England, United Kingdom

|35 mm

|

|

|Buckingham Palace

|13 September 1940

|Cecil Beaton

|London, England, United Kingdom

|

|

|

|Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico

|1 November 1941

|Ansel Adams

|Hernandez, New Mexico, United States

|Gelatin silver print, large format

|

|

|The Roaring Lion

|30 December 1941

|Yousuf Karsh

|Ottawa, Canada

|Large format

|Winston Churchill

|

|Grief

|1942

|Dmitri Baltermants

|Kerch, Ukraine

|35 mm

|

|

|The Tetons and the Snake River

|1942

|Ansel Adams

|Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming, United States

|

|

|

|American Gothic

|August 1942

|Gordon Parks

|Washington, D.C., United States

|35 mm

|

|

|Betty Grable

|1943

|Frank Powolny

|Los Angeles, California, United States

|

|

|

|The Critic

|1943

|Weegee

|New York City, United States

|Unknown

|

|

|Warsaw Ghetto boy

|1943

|Unknown

|Warsaw, Poland

|35 mm

|Originally titled {{lang|de|Mit Gewalt aus Bunkern hervorgeholt}} ('Forcibly pulled out of bunkers')

|

|Three American Soldiers Ambushed on Buna Beach

|20 September 1943

|George Strock

|Buna, Papua New Guinea

|Unknown (likely medium format)

|

|

|Into the Jaws of Death

|6 June 1944

|Robert F. Sargent

|Omaha Beach, France

|

|

|

|The Magnificent Eleven (collection of 11 photographs)

|6 June 1944

|Robert Capa

|Normandy, France

|35 mm

|

|

|Prisoners' Hand Marks

|1944

|Roger Schall

|Paris, France

|

|

|

|Saipan

|1944

|W. Eugene Smith

|Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands

|

|

|

|Tide Pool, Point Lobos

|1945{{Cite web |title=Tide pool, Point Lobos / EW. |url=https://www.loc.gov/item/89715186/ |access-date=2024-03-06 |website=Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA}}

|Edward Weston

|Point Lobos, California, United States

|

|

|

|Return to the Philippines

|9 January 1945

|Carl Mydans

|Lingayen Gulf, Philippines

|

|

|

|Yalta Conference

|February 1945

|U.S. Army Signal Corps

|Yalta, Crimea

|

|

|

|Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima

|23 February 1945

|Joe Rosenthal

|Iwo Jima, Japan

|Large format

|The photograph depicts the raising of the U.S. flag on Mount Suribachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima.

|

|15 April 1945

|Margaret Bourke-White

|Ettersberg, Germany

|

|

|

|Inside Buchenwald

|16 April 1945

|Private H. Miller

|Ettersberg, Germany

|

|

|

|Gestapo Informer Recognized by a Woman She Had Denounced

|April 1945

|Henri Cartier‐Bresson

|Dessau, Germany

|35 mm

|

|

|Benito Mussolini

|29 April 1945

|Vincenzo Carrese

|Milan, Italy

|

|The dead body of Benito Mussolini next to his mistress Claretta Petacci and those of other executed fascists, on display in Piazzale Loreto, the same place that the fascists had displayed the bodies of fifteen Milanese civilians a year earlier after executing them in retaliation for resistance activity.

|

|Raising a Flag over the Reichstag

|2 May 1945

|Yevgeny Khaldei

|Berlin, Germany

|35 mm

|The photograph depicts the raising of the Soviet flag during Battle of Berlin.

|

|Atomic Cloud Rises Over Nagasaki

|9 August 1945

|Charles Levy

|Nagasaki, Japan

|Unknown

|

|

|V-J Day in Times Square

|14 August 1945

|Alfred Eisenstaedt (pictured: same event taken by Victor Jorgensen)

|New York City, United States

|35 mm

|The photograph depicts a U.S. Navy sailor embracing and kissing a total stranger on Victory over Japan Day.

|

|1945

|George Silk

|Hiroshima, Japan

|

|

|

|Atomic Destruction

|1945

|Bernard Hoffman

|Hiroshima, Japan

|

|The photograph was in the first collection depicting the aftermath of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima.

|

|Gandhi at his Spinning Wheel

|1946

|Margaret Bourke-White

|India

|

|The photograph depicts Mahatma Gandhi reading beside his spinning wheel.

|

|The Dead Sea Scrolls

|1947

|Amit Shabi

|Israel

|

|The photograph depicts the Dead Sea Scrolls, the most important collection of Biblical manuscripts.{{Citation |last=Silberman |first=Neil Asher |title=Dead Sea Scrolls |date=1996 |work=The Oxford Companion to Archaeology |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780195076189.001.0001/acref-9780195076189-e-0116 |access-date=2024-02-24 |publisher=Oxford University Press |language=en |doi=10.1093/acref/9780195076189.001.0001 |isbn=978-0-19-507618-9|url-access=subscription }}

|

|Route 66

|1947

|Andreas Feininger

|Route 66 in Arizona, United States

|

|

|

|Barn Owl with Vole

|1947

|Eric Hosking

|Suffolk, England, United Kingdom

|

|

|

|Babe Ruth Bows Out

|13 June 1948

|Nat Fein

|New York City, United States

|

|

|

|Dalí Atomicus

|1948

|Philippe Halsman

|New York City, United States

|Unknown

|

|

|1948

|Fritz Goro

|Michigan, United States

|

|

|

|Country Doctor

|1948

|W. Eugene Smith

|Kremmling, Colorado, United States

|

|

|

|Career Girl

|1948

|Leonard McCombe

|New York City, United States

|

|

|

|Provençal Nude

|1949

|Willy Ronis

|Gordes, France

|

|

|

|Nuns Watching Television

|1949

|Ralph Morse

|Erie, Pennsylvania, United States

|

|

|

|Clarence Hailey Long

|1949

|Leonard McCombe

|Texas, United States

|

|

|

!Image

!Title

!Date

!Photographer

!Location

!Format

!Notes

!Cited survey(s)

|The Kiss at the Hôtel de Ville ({{Langx|fr|Les Amants de l'Hôtel de Ville|links=no}})

|1950

|Robert Doisneau

|Paris, France

|35 mm

|

|

|Iron Lung Polio Patients

|1950

|Unknown

|Downey, California, United States

|

|

|

|Albert Einstein

|1951

|Arthur Sasse

|New York City, United States

|35 mm

|

|

|Photo 51

|May 1952

|Raymond Gosling and Rosalind Franklin

|London, England

|

|The photograph depicts an X-ray diffraction image providing key to DNA structure.

|

|Moving to the Suburbs

|1952

|J.R. Eyerman

|Lakewood, California, United States

|

|

|

|The Announcement of Stalin's Death

|6 March 1953

|Dmitri Baltermants

|Moscow, Moscow Oblast, Russia

|

|

|

|Camelot

|1953

|Hy Peskin

|Cape Cod, Massachusetts, United States

|

|

|

|23 May 1953

|Sir Edmund Hillary

|Mount Everest, Koshi Province, Nepal

|

|

|

|Atop Mount Everest

|23 May 1953

|Alfred Gregory

|Mount Everest, Koshi Province, Nepal

|

|

|

|6 May 1954

|Norman Potter

|Oxford, England, United Kingdom

|35 mm

|

|

|Monroe

|9 September 1954

|Matty Zimmerman

|New York City, United States

|

|The photograph depicts Marilyn Monroe while her white dress blows upwards during a shot for a scene in the 1955 film The Seven Year Itch.

|

|1955

|Ralph Morse

|Bronx, New York, United States

|

|

|

|Emmett Till's mother at his funeral.

|1955

|David Jackson

|Chicago, Illinois, United States{{Cite magazine |date=2016-07-10 |title=The Photo That Changed the Civil Rights Movement |url=https://time.com/4399793/emmett-till-civil-rights-photography/ |access-date=2024-02-25 |magazine=TIME |language=en}}

|

|

|

|Dovima with Elephants

|1955

|Richard Avedon

|Paris, France

|

|

|

|Trolley{{Spaced en dash}}New Orleans

|1955

|Robert Frank

|New Orleans, Louisiana, United States

|35 mm

|

|

|Hot Shot Eastbound at Iaeger Drive‐In

|1956

|O. Winston Link

|Iaeger, West Virginia, United States

|Large format

|

|

|The New King

|1956

|Charles Trainor

|Miami, Florida, United States

|

|

|

|Milk Drop Coronet

|1957

|Harold E. Edgerton

|Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States

|35 mm

|Two drops of milk imaged by fast-film stroboscopic photography

|

|First Digital Photo

|1957

|Russell Kirsch

|Gaithersburg, Maryland, United States

|Photo composite of two binary scans

|

|

|Elizabeth Eckford

|1957

|Will Counts

|Little Rock, Arkansas, United States

|

|Eckford as one of the Little Rock Nine who faced opposition while attending a formerly segregated high school.

|

|Aspens, Northern New Mexico

|1958

|Ansel Adams

|New Mexico, United States

|Gelatin silver print

|

|

|1959

|Robert Noyce

|United States

|

|

|

|First Satellite Image

|14 August 1959

|Explorer VI

|17000 miles above Mexico

|

|

|

!Image

!Title

!Date

!Photographer

!Location

!Format

!Notes

!Cited survey(s)

|Guerrillero Heroico

|5 March 1960

|Alberto Korda

|Havana, Cuba

|35 mm

|The photograph depicts Che Guevara at a funeral for the victims of the La Coubre explosion. The portrait is commonly displayed as a symbol of student protest and revolutionary movements, and has appeared on clothing and other merchandise.{{Citation |last=Hopkinson |first=Amanda |editor-first1=Angela |editor-last1=Nicholson |title=Korda, Alberto |date=2005 |work=The Oxford Companion to the Photograph |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780198662716.001.0001/acref-9780198662716-e-860 |access-date=2024-02-26 |publisher=Oxford University Press |language=en |doi=10.1093/acref/9780198662716.001.0001 |isbn=978-0-19-866271-6|url-access=subscription }}{{Citation |last=Harambour |first=Alberto|title=Guevara, Che, as Icon |date=2008-01-01 |encyclopedia=The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern World |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780195176322.001.0001/acref-9780195176322-e-672 |access-date=2024-02-26 |publisher=Oxford University Press |language=en |doi=10.1093/acref/9780195176322.001.0001 |isbn=978-0-19-517632-2|url-access=subscription }}

|

|21 March 1960

|Ian Berry

|Sharpeville, South Africa

|

|

|

|Case Study House no. 22, Los Angeles

|1960

|Julius Shulman

|Los Angeles, California, United States

|Large format

|

|

|26 September 1960

|Paul Schutzer

|Chicago, Illinois, United States

|35 mm

|

|

|16 November 1960

|Carl Mydans

|Moscow, Russia

|

|

|

|1961

|Gordon Parks

|Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

|

|

|

|Leap into Freedom

|15 August 1961

|Peter Leibing

|Berlin, Germany

|35 mm

|The photograph depicts Hans Conrad Schumann, an East German soldier running away over barbed-wire in Berlin.

|

|1962

|Stan Wayman

|{{Where|date=February 2024}}

|

|

|

|Cuban Missile Crisis

|25 October 1962

|Neal Boenzi

|New York City, United States

|

|Adlai Stevenson II shows aerial photos of Russian missiles in Cuba to the United Nations Security Council in the presence of USSR ambassador Valerian Zorin.

|

|Birmingham, Alabama

|3 May 1963

|Charles Moore

|Birmingham, Alabama, United States

|

|Nonviolent civil rights movement student activists sprayed by high-pressure fire hoses during the Birmingham campaign's Children's Crusade.

|

|28, May, 1963

|Fred Blackwell

|Jackson, Mississippi, United States

|

|

|

|Nuit de Noël (Happy Club)

|1963

|Malick Sidibé

|Bamako, Mali

|

|

|

|The Burning Monk

|11 June 1963

|Malcolm Browne

|Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

|35 mm

|The photograph depicts the Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thích Quảng Đức protesting the persecution of Buddhists under the government of Ngo Dinh Diem by committing self-immolation.

|

|I Have a Dream

|28 August 1963

|Agence France-Presse

|Washington, D.C., United States

|35 mm

|The photograph depicts Martin Luther King Jr. waving to supporters during the March on Washington, where he gave his "I Have a Dream" speech, considered the most famous American oration of the twentieth century.{{Citation |last1=Miller |first1=Keith D. |title="I Have a Dream." |date=2002-01-01 |work=The Concise Oxford Companion to African American Literature |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780195138832.001.0001/acref-9780195138832-e-292 |access-date=2024-02-26 |publisher=Oxford University Press |language=en |doi=10.1093/acref/9780195138832.001.0001 |isbn=978-0-19-513883-2 |last2=Lewis |first2=Emily M.|url-access=subscription }}

|

|Zapruder film

|22 November 1963

|Abraham Zapruder

|Dallas, Texas, United States

|35 mm internegative

|The film depicts the most complete view of the assassination of US president John F. Kennedy.{{Cite web |date=2023-10-29 |title=What Happened to the Zapruder Film? |url=https://www.history.com/news/what-happened-to-the-zapruder-film |access-date=2024-02-26 |website=HISTORY |language=en}}

|

|Johnson Is Sworn In

|22 November 1963

|Cecil W. Stoughton

|Dallas, Texas, United States

|

|Lyndon B. Johnson taking the oath of office aboard Air Force One at Love Field Airport two hours and eight minutes after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Dallas, Texas. Jackie Kennedy (right), still in her blood-soaked clothes, looks on.

|

|Jack Ruby Shoots Lee Harvey Oswald

|24 November 1963

|Robert H. Jackson

|Dallas, Texas, United States

|35 mm

|The photograph depicts the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald by Jack Ruby while Oswald was being escorted by police two days after he had assassinated US president John F. Kennedy.{{Cite web |date=2002-06-30 |title=Photographer snapped Oswald's murder a hair too soon, lost Pulitzer, place in history to rival |url=https://www.dallasnews.com/news/2002/06/30/photographer-snapped-oswald-s-murder-a-hair-too-soon-lost-pulitzer-place-in-history-to-rival/ |access-date=2024-02-26 |website=Dallas News |language=en}}

|

|1964

|Harry Benson

|New York City, United States

|

|

|

|Pillow Fight

|1964

|Harry Benson

|Paris, France

|

|

|

|7 March 1965

|James H. Karales

|Alabama, United States

|

|

|

|New View of Life, Fetus 18 Weeks

|1965

|Lennart Nilsson

|Stockholm, Sweden{{Cite news |last=Jansen |first=Charlotte |date=2019-11-18 |title=Foetus 18 Weeks: the greatest photograph of the 20th century? |url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/nov/18/foetus-images-lennart-nilsson-photojournalist |access-date=2024-02-26 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}

|Unknown

|

|

|Muhammad Ali vs. Sonny Liston

|1965

|Neil Leifer

|Lewiston, Maine, United States

|Medium format

|

|

|Jane Goodall Greets Baby Chimp

|1965

|Hugo van Lawick

|Gombe Stream National Park, Tanzania

|

|

|

|Chairman Mao Swims in the Yangtze

|1966

|Hou Bo

|Wuhan, Hubei, China{{Cite news |date=1966-07-29 |title=Chairman Mao Swims in the Yangtse |url=https://www.marxists.org/subject/china/peking-review/1966/PR1966-31.pdf#page=3 |access-date=2024-02-26 |work=Peking Review |pages=3}}

|

|

|

|Reaching Out

|5 October 1966

|Larry Burrows

|Mutter's Ridge, Vietnam

|35 mm

|

|

|The Mini Moment

|3 December 1966

|Popperfoto

|{{Where|date=February 2024}}

|

|

|

|The Boston Marathon

|19 May 1967

|Harry Trask

|Boston, Massachusetts, United States

|

|Runner Kathrine Switzer attacked by race official Jock Semple while running in the 1967 Boston Marathon.

|

|The Jimi Hendrix Experience

|18 June 1967

|Jim Marshall

|Monterey, California, United States

|

|

|

|1 March 1967

|Bernard Gotfryd

|London, England, United Kingdom

|

|

|

|1967

|Ralph Ditter

|Zanesville, Ohio, United States

|

|

|

|Patterson-Gimlin Film

|20 October 1967

|Roger Patterson

|Pacific Northwest, United States

|16 mm

|

|

|Flower Power

|21 October 1967

|Bernie Boston

|Washington, D.C., United States

|35 mm

|

|

|Saigon Execution

|1 February 1968

|Eddie Adams

|Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

|Unknown

|

|

|Massacre of Villagers in My Lai

|16 March 1968

|Ronald L. Haeberle

|Sơn Mỹ, Vietnam

|

|

|

|My Lai

|16 March 1968

|Ronald L. Haeberle

|Sơn Mỹ, Vietnam

|35 mm

|A group of civilian women and children before being killed by the U.S. Army.

|

|Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.

|4 April 1968

|Joseph Louw

|Memphis, Tennessee, United States

|

|

|

|Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy

|5 June 1968

|Bill Eppridge

|Los Angeles, California, United States

|35 mm

|

|

|August 1968

|Perry C. Riddle

|United States

|

|

|

|Invasion of Prague

|August 1968

|Josef Koudelka

|Prague, Czechia

|

|

|

|Bratislava Tank Man

|August 1968

|Ladislav Bielik

|Bratislava, Slovakia

|

|

|

|1968 Olympics Black Power Salute

|16 October 1968

|John Dominis

|Mexico City, Mexico

|

|

|

|Earthrise

|24 December 1968

|William Anders

|The Moon

|Medium format

|The photograph depicts the Earth and Moon's surface from Apollo 8.

|

|Albino Boy, Biafra

|1969

|Don McCullin

|Biafra, West Africa

|

|

|

|1969

|Duncan Cameron

|Northumberland Strait, Canada

|

|

|

|28 May - 3 June 1969

|Life Magazine

|Various

|

|

|

|August 1969

|Burk Uzzle

|Bethel, New York, United States

|

|

|

|Woodstock

|August 1969

|Bill Eppridge

|Bethel, New York, United States

|

|

|

|Buzz Aldrin on the Moon

|21 July 1969

|Neil Armstrong

|Sea of Tranquility, the Moon

|70 mm lunar surface camera

|Buzz Aldrin during Apollo 11, the first crewed Moon landing

|

|Apollo 11 Bootprint

|21 July 1969

|Buzz Aldrin

|Sea of Tranquility, the Moon

|70 mm lunar surface camera

|

|

|Altamont

|6 December 1969

|Unknown

|Altamont Speedway, California, United States

|

|

|

!Image

!Title

!Date

!Photographer

!Location

!Format

!Notes

!Cited survey(s)

|Kent State Shootings

|4 May 1970

|John Paul Filo

|Kent, Ohio, United States

|Unknown

|

|

|Elvis Meets Nixon

|21 December 1970

|Oliver F. Atkins

|Washington, D.C., United States

|

|

|

|Tomoko and Mother in the Bath

|1971

|W. Eugene Smith

|Kyūshū, Japan

|

|

|

|Windblown Jackie

|1971

|Ron Galella

|New York City, United States

|

|

|

|President Richard Nixon and Mao Zedong

|21 February 1972

|Unknown

|Beijing, China

|

|

|

|Nixon in China

|26 February 1972

|Oliver F. Atkins

|Beijing, China

|

|

|

|The Terror of War

|8 June 1972

|Disputed: either Nick Ut, Nguyễn Thành Nghệ, or Huỳnh Công Phúc

|Trảng Bàng, Vietnam

|35 mm

|The photograph depicts a crowd of Vietnamese people running from napalm, among them a girl (later identified as Phan Thi Kim Phuc) who survived by tearing off her burning clothes.

|

|Munich Massacre

|5 September 1972

|Kurt Strumpf

|Munich, Germany

|35 mm

|

|

|Bullet Passing through a Candle Flame

|1973

|Doc Edgerton

|United States

|

|

|

|Allende's Last Stand

|11 September 1973

|Orlando Lagos

|Chile

|35 mm

|

|

|Patty Hearst Surveillance

|15 April 1974

|Hibernia Bank Surveillance Camera

|San Francisco, California, United States

|Surveillance camera still

|Patty Hearst, during the April 1974 Hibernia bank robbery.

|

|Nixon Resignation

|9 August 1974

|Rolls Press

|Washington, D.C., United States

|

|

|

|Water‐Towers

|1974{{Ndash}}2009

|Bernd and Hilla Becher

|Various locations across Europe and the United States{{Cite web |last=Emma |first=Lewis |date=March 2014 |title=Water Towers |url=https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/bernd-becher-and-hilla-becher-water-towers-p81238 |access-date=2024-02-27}}

|Large format

|

|

|Prime Minister Gough Whitlam Pours Soil into the Hand of Traditional Gurindji Landowner Vincent Lingiari

|1975

|Mervyn Bishop

|Daguragu, Northern Territory, Australia

|

|

|

|Helicopter Evacuation of the US Embassy, Saigon

|April 1975

|Thai Khac Chuong

|Nha Trang, Vietnam

|35 mm

|

|

|Fire Escape Collapse

|22 July 1975

|Stanley Forman

|Boston, Massachusetts, United States

|

|

|

|Soweto Uprising

|16 June 1976

|Sam Nzima

|Soweto, Gauteng, South Africa

|35 mm

|

|

|The Red Planet

|21 July 1976

|Viking 1

|Chryse Planitia, Mars{{Cite book |last=Stooke |first=Philip J. |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/international-atlas-of-mars-exploration/8D4BF2F656438ED6C7FBE9EBA866FB7F |title=The International Atlas of Mars Exploration: The First Five Decades: Volume 1: 1953 to 2003 |date=2012 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-76553-4 |volume=1 |location=Cambridge |doi=10.1017/cbo9781139028301}}

|

|

|

|Boat of No Smiles

|1977

|Eddie Adams

|Gulf of Siam

|

|

|

|Untitled Film Stills

|1977–1980

|Cindy Sherman

|New York City, United States{{Cite web |last=Gaylord |first=Kristen |date=2016 |title=Cindy Sherman |url=https://www.moma.org/artists/5392 |access-date=2024-02-27}}

|Unknown

|

|

|1979

|Jay Ullal

|Cambodia

|

|

|

|Brian Ridley and Lyle Heeter

|1979

|Robert Mapplethorpe

|New York City, United States{{Cite web |title=Brian Ridley and Lyle Heeter {{!}} LACMA Collections |url=https://collections.lacma.org/node/2155762 |access-date=2024-02-27 |website=collections.lacma.org}}

|

|

|

|Peace Treaty

|26 March 1979

|Yaakov Saar

|Washington, D.C., United States

|

|The triple handshake in the peace treaty signing between Israel and Egypt on the White House lawn

|

|Molotov Man

|16 July 1979{{Cite web |title=Object Highlight {{!}} The Life of an Image: "Molotov Man," 1979–2009 {{!}} Princeton University Art Museum |url=https://artmuseum.princeton.edu/story/object-highlight-life-image-%E2%80%9Cmolotov-man-1979%E2%80%932009 |access-date=2024-02-27 |website=artmuseum.princeton.edu}}

|Susan Meiselas

|Estelí, Nicaragua{{Cite web |title=Object Highlight {{!}} The Life of an Image: "Molotov Man," 1979–2009 {{!}} Princeton University Art Museum |url=https://artmuseum.princeton.edu/story/object-highlight-life-image-%E2%80%9Cmolotov-man-1979%E2%80%932009 |access-date=2024-03-11 |website=artmuseum.princeton.edu}}

|

|

|

|Firing Squad in Iran

|27 August 1979

|Jahangir Razmi

|Kurdistan province, Iran{{Cite news |last=Byrd |first=Joann |title='Anonymous' no more |url=https://www.pulitzer.org/article/anonymous-no-more |access-date=2024-02-27}}

|

|

|

!Image

!Title

!Date

!Photographer

!Location

!Format

!Notes

!Cited survey(s)

|John Lennon and Yoko Ono

|1980

|Annie Leibowitz

|New York City, United States

|

|Lennon was murdered hours after the photograph was taken by Leibovitz

|

|Miracle on Ice

|1980

|Heinz Kluetmeier

|Lake Placid, New York, United States

|

|

|

|1980

|Mike Wells

|Uganda

|

|

|

|Self‐Portrait with Wife and Model

|1981

|Helmut Newton

|Paris, France

|

|

|

|Diana with Bridesmaids in Buckingham Palace

|1981

|Patrick Anson, 5th Earl of Lichfield

|London, England

|

|

|

|Behind Closed Doors

|1982

|Donna Ferrato

|Saddle River, New Jersey, United States

|

|

|

|Androgyny (6 Men + 6 Women)

|1982

|Nancy Burson

|Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States{{Citation needed|date=February 2024|reason=Unsure of where the photo was created; sources say it was merely 'made with MIT engineers'.}}

|

|

|

|1984

|Robert Mapplethorpe

|New York City, United States

|

|

|

|1984

|Robert Frieder

|Detroit, Michigan, United States

|

|

|

|Michael Jordan

|1984

|Co Rentmeester

|Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States

|

|

|

|Hole in the Ozone

|3 October 1985

|NASA

|Greenbelt, Maryland, United States

|

|

|

|Challenger Disaster

|28 January 1986

|Michele McDonald

|Cape Canaveral, Florida, United States

|

|

|

|Ken Meeks, Patient with AIDS, Being Cared for by a Friend, San Francisco, California

|1986

|Alon Reininger

|San Francisco, California, United States

|

|

|

|The First Heart Transplant in Poland

|1 January 1987

|James L. Stanfield

|Zabrze, Poland

|

|

|

|Immersion (Piss Christ)

|1987

|Andres Serrano

|United States

|Medium format

|

|

|Monkey Business

|1987

|National Enquirer

|Bimini, the Bahamas{{Cite web |last=Fallows |first=James |date=2018-10-16 |title=Was Gary Hart Set Up? |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/11/was-gary-hart-set-up/570802/ |access-date=2024-02-28 |website=The Atlantic |language=en}}

|

|

|

|Willie Horton

|1987

|Unknown

|Maryland, United States

|

|

|

|Dukakis and the Tank

|1988

|Michael E. Samojeden

|Detroit, Michigan, United States

|

|The infamous photo of Michael Dukakis taken as part of his presidential campaign.

|

|Air Jordan

|1988

|Walter Iooss

|Chicago, Illinois, United States

|Medium format

|

|

|Untitled (Cowboy)

|1989

|Richard Prince

|United States

|Composite

|

|

|Exxon Valdez Oil Spill

|24 March 1989

|John S. Lough

|Alaska, United States

|

|

|

|Tank Man

|5 June 1989

|Jeff Widener

|Beijing, China

|

|The photograph depicts an unidentified protestor confronting column of Chinese military tanks.

|

|The Wall Falls

|November 1989

|Robert Maass

|Berlin, Germany

|

|

|

|Nicolae Ceausescu

|December 1989

|Christopher Pillitz

|Romania

|

|

|

!Image

!Title

!Date

!Photographer

!Location

!Format

!Notes

!Cited survey(s)

|The Face of AIDS

|1990

|Therese Frare

|Columbus, Ohio, United States

|

|

|

|Operation Desert Storm

|27 February 1991

|David Turnley

|Iraq

|35 mm

|

|

|Camels in the Oil Fields

|1 March 1991

|Steve McCurry

|Burgan field, Kuwait{{Cite web |date=2024-01-14 |title=Conflict — Steve McCurry |url=https://www.stevemccurry.com/conflict |access-date=2024-02-29 |archive-date=14 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240114205816/https://www.stevemccurry.com/conflict |url-status=bot: unknown }}

|

|

|

|L.A. Police Beating Rodney King

|3 March 1991

|George Holiday

|Los Angeles, California, United States

|

|

|

|More Demi Moore

|1991

|Annie Leibovitz

|Culver City, California, United States{{Cite journal |last=Wexler |first=Laura |year=2011 |title=More Pregnant Pictures |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.2752/175145211X13068409556763 |journal=Photography and Culture |language=en |volume=4 |issue=3 |pages=309–320 |doi=10.2752/175145211X13068409556763 |s2cid=191476282 |issn=1751-4517|url-access=subscription }}

|

|

|

|Famine in Somalia

|1992

|James Nachtwey

|Baidoa, Somalia{{Cite news |last=Nachtwey |first=James |date=1992-12-06 |title=SOMALIA 1992: The Casualties |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/12/06/magazine/somalia-1992-the-casualties.html |access-date=2024-02-29 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}

|

|

|

|Dead Troops Talk

|1992

|Jeff Wall

|Muqur District, Ghazni, Afghanistan

|Large format lightbox transparency

|

|

|Bosnia

|2 April 1992

|Ron Haviv

|Bijeljina, Bosnia and Herzegovina

|35 mm

|

|

|The Vulture and the Little Girl

|March 1993

|Kevin Carter

|Ayod, Sudan (now South Sudan)

|35 mm

|

|

|Beauty Out of Damage

|1993

|Matuschka

|United States

|

|Matuschka's controversial self portrait baring her mastectomy combined with her face. The photo covered the New York Times Sunday Magazine and helped spark debate about breast cancer around the US and the world

|

|1994

|Seamus Conlan and Tara Farrell

|Rwanda

|

|

|

|Oklahoma City Bombing

|19 April 1995

|Charles Porter IV

|Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States

|

|

|

|Giant Iceberg

|1995

|Dr. Hans Oerter

|Antarctic Peninsula, Antarctica

|

|

|

|Pillars of Creation

|1995

|Hubble Space Telescope / NASA

|Low Earth orbit

|Wide field and planetary camera

|The photograph depicts a region of star formation.

|

|Bill Clinton hugs Monica Lewinsky

|1996

|Dirck Halstead

|Washington, D.C., United States

|35 mm

|

|

|First Cell-Phone Picture

|11 June 1997

|Philippe Kahn

|Santa Cruz, California, United States

|Cell phone

|

|

|1997

|Jeff Abelin

|Fuyang, Anhui, China

|

|

|

|99 Cent

|1999

|Andreas Gursky

|Los Angeles, California, United States

|chromogenic print face-mounted to acrylic

|

|

|Kosovo Refugees

|3 May 1999

|Carol Guzy

|Kukës, Albania{{Cite web |title=1999 — Kosovo's Sorrow |url=https://www.carolguzy.com/pulitzer-prize-images/project-one-ffpfd |access-date=2024-02-29 |website=Carol Guzy – photojournalist |language=en-US}}

|

|

|

|World Cup Winners

|1999

|Robert Beck

|Pasadena, California, United States

|

|

|

!Image

!Title

!Date

!Photographer

!Location

!Format

!Notes

!Cited survey(s)

|Elian Gonzalez Federal Raid

|2000

|Alan Diaz

|Miami, Florida, United States

|

|

|

|Surfing Hippos

|2000

|Michael Nichols

|Loango National Park, Gabon

|

|

|

|11 September 2001

|Jules Naudet

|New York City, United States

|

|A screenshot of the Jules Naudet footage that is included in the Naudet brothers' documentary film 9/11, originally broadcast on March 10, 2002, on CBS, and later released on DVD.

|

|President George W. Bush Learns of the September 11th Attacks

|11 September 2001

|Doug Mills

|Sarasota, Florida, United States{{Cite web |last=Handelman |first=Jay |title=The 9/11 classroom: Booker Elementary students, now 27, recall President Bush's visit in CNN special |url=https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/news/2021/09/01/cnn-911-documentary-2021-booker-elementary-students-recall-president-george-w-bushs-sarasota-visit/5674790001/ |access-date=2024-03-02 |website=Sarasota Herald-Tribune |language=en-US}}

|

|

|

|The Falling Man

|11 September 2001

9:41:15 A.M.

|Richard Drew

|New York City, United States

|

|

|

|New Yorkers watch the collapse of the South Tower of the World Trade Center

|11 September 2001

|Patrick Witty

|New York City, United States

|

|

|

|Father Judge

|11 September 2001

|Shannon Stapleton

|New York City, United States

|

|

|

|Raising the Flag at Ground Zero

|11 September 2001

|Thomas E. Franklin

|New York City, United States

|

|

|

|Toppling the Statue of Saddam Hussein

|9 April 2003

|Goran Tomasevic

|Baghdad, Iraq

|35 mm

|

|

|The Pencil Nebula

|5 June 2003

|Hubble Space Telescope / NASA

|Low Earth orbit

|Wide field and planetary camera

|

|

|The Hooded Man

|4 November 2003

|Ivan Frederick

|Abu Ghraib, Iraq

|

|The photograph depicts Abdou Hussain Saad Faleh, an Abu Ghraib prisoner, being subjected to torture.

|

|Sakura Lisi

|2004

|Marcus Bleasdale

|Mongbwalu, Ituri Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo

|

|

|

|Coffin Ban

|2004

|Tami Silicio

|Kuwait International Airport, Farwaniya Governorate, Kuwait{{Cite web |last=Tribune |first=Chicago |date=2004-04-23 |title=Photo of GIs' caskets costs worker her job |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/2004/04/23/photo-of-gis-caskets-costs-worker-her-job/ |access-date=2024-03-02 |website=Chicago Tribune |language=en-US}}

|

|

|

|Iraqi Girl

|18 January 2005

|Chris Hondros

|Tal Afar, Iraq

|

|

|

|Hurricane Katrina Evacuation

|3 September 2005

|Eric Gay

|New Orleans, Louisiana, United States

|

|

|

|Hurricane Katrina

|4 September 2005

|Robert Galbraith

|New Orleans, Louisiana, United States

|

|

|

|Hurricane Katrina

|2005

|David Phillip

|New Orleans, Louisiana, United States

|

|

|

|Jim Comes Home

|2005

|Todd Heisler

|Aurora, Colorado, United States{{Cite news |last=Sheeler |first=Jim |date=2005-11-11 |title=Final salute |url=https://digital.denverlibrary.org/digital/collection/p16079coll49/id/273 |access-date=2024-03-02 |work=Rocky Mountain News |pages=2}}

|

|

|

|The Power of One

|1 February 2006

|Oded Bality

|Amona, West Bank

|35 mm

|

|

|Gorilla in the Congo

|July 2007

|Brent Stirton

|Virunga National Park, North Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo{{Cite news |last1=Andreasson |first1=Karin |last2=Andreasson |first2=Interview by Karin |date=2015-10-22 |title=Brent Stirton's best photograph – Congo wildlife rangers carry a dead silverback |url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/oct/22/brent-stirton-best-photograph-dead-silverback-gorilla-congo-virunga |access-date=2024-03-02 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}

|35 mm

|

|

|Memorial Day at Arlington National Cemetery

|27 May 2007

|John Moore

|Arlington, Virginia, United States

|

|

|

|Homecoming

|2007

|Louie Favorite

|Atlanta, Georgia, United States

|

|

|

|Photo Finish

|16 August 2008

|Heinz Kluetmeier

|Beijing, China

|35 mm

|

|

|Married at Last

|2008

|Marcio Sanchez

|San Francisco, California, United States

|

|

|

|The New First Family

|2008

|Win McNamee

|Chicago, Illinois, United States

|

|

|

|Funeral of Edwin Cobbin

|2009

|Barbara Davidson

|Hawthorne, California, United States

|

|

|

|Diego Frazão Torquato

|2009

|Marcos Tristao

|Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

|

|

|

|Hair Like Mine

|2009

|Pete Souza

|Washington, D.C., United States

|

|

|

|The Death of Neda

|2009

|Unknown

|Tehran, Iran

|

|

|

!Image

!Title

!Date

!Photographer

!Location

!Format

!Notes

!Cited survey(s)

|First Instagram Photo{{Efn|Originally captioned "test".}}

|16 July 2010

|Kevin Systrom

|Mexico

|Cell phone

|Kevin Systrom (co-founder of Instagram), the BBC, Time, and Life magazine claim the photograph to be the first shared on Instagram,{{Cite news |date=2018-09-25 |title=Instagram: The dog that launched a social media giant |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-45640386 |access-date=2024-03-07 |language=en-GB}}{{Cite magazine |date=2015-10-06 |title=This is Instagram's first photo ever |url=https://time.com/4061227/instagram-first-photo/ |access-date=2024-03-07 |magazine=TIME |language=en}} however The Economic Times and The Guardian claim the first photograph posted to the social media to be a picture of San Francisco's South Beach harbor by Mike Krieger, also co-founder.{{Cite news |last=Cartner-Morley |first=Jess |date=2020-09-20 |title=Instagram at 10: how sharing photos has entertained us, upset us – and changed our sense of self |url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/sep/20/instagram-at-10-how-sharing-photos-has-entertained-us-upset-us-and-changed-our-sense-of-self |access-date=2024-03-07 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}{{Cite web |title=10 years of Instagram: Here are some interesting facts about the world's most loved photo-sharing app – Creators |url=https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/internet/10-years-of-instagram-here-are-some-interesting-facts-about-the-worlds-most-loved-photo-sharing-app/the-first-photo/slideshow/78486849.cms |access-date=2024-03-07 |website=The Economic Times}} Time later claimed the post of the harbor was the first shared.{{Cite magazine |date=2016-07-16 |title=Take a Look Back at Instagram's First Posts, Six Years Ago |url=https://time.com/4408374/instagram-anniversary/ |access-date=2024-03-07 |magazine=TIME |language=en}}

|

|The Situation Room

|1 May 2011

|Pete Souza

|Washington, D.C., United States

|35 mm

|Barack Obama and his national security team, in the White House Situation Room during the killing of Osama bin Laden

|

|9/11 Memorial

|11 September 2011

|Justin Lane

|New York City, United States

|

|

|

|Aida

|12 March 2012

|Rodrigo Abd

|Idlib, Syria

|

|

|

|Fashion Week

|7 September 2012

|Lucas Jackson

|New York City, United States

|

|

|

|Shootings as Routine

|14 December 2012

|Jessica Hill

|Newtown, Connecticut, United States

|

|The photograph shows Carlee Soto using a phone to ask about her sister, Victoria Soto, a teacher at the Sandy Hook Elementary School, after gunman Adam Lanza opened fire on the school, killing 26.

|

|Sandy Hook

|14 December 2012

|Shannon Hicks

|Newtown, Connecticut, United States

|

|

|

|China Social Suicide

|27 February 2013

|Agence France-Presse

|Wuhan, Hubei, China

|

|

|

|North Korea

|2013

|David Guttenfelder

|Pyongyang, North Korea

|

|

|

|Boston Marathon Bombing

|2013

|John Tlumacki

|Boston, Massachusetts, United States

|

|

|

|Final Embrace

|April 2013

|Taslima Akhter

|Savar Upazila, Bangladesh

|

|

|

|Nairobi Mall Attack

|21 September 2013

|Tyler Hicks

|Nairobi, Kenya

|

|

|

|Oscars Selfie

|2 March 2014

|Bradley Cooper

|Los Angeles, California, United States

|Cell phone

|The photograph is a selfie taken at the 2014 Oscars. The image shows Ellen DeGeneres, Meryl Streep, Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Julia Roberts, Kevin Spacey, Channing Tatum, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Lupita Nyong'o, and her brother, Peter Nyong'o.

|

|Turkey Mine Blast

|13 May 2014

|Bülent Kılıç

|Soma, Manisa Province, Turkey

|

|

|

|Alan Kurdi

|2 September 2015

|Nilufer Demir

|Bodrum, Muğla Province, Turkey

|Unknown

|

|

|Turkish Coast Guard Rescue

|2016

|Emin Menguarslan

|Aydın, Aydın Province, Turkey

|

|

|

|Yarmouk Refugees

|26 January 2017

|UNRWA

|Damascus, Syria

|

|

|

|Climate Change

|2018

|Sergio Pitamitz

|Svalbard, Norway

|

|The photograph depicts a polar bear standing on a melting ice sheet.

|

!Image

!Title

!Date

!Photographer

!Location

!Subject

!Cited survey(s)

|The Capitol Under Attack

|6 January 2021

|Tayfun Coşkun

|Washington, D.C., United States

|January 6 United States Capitol attack

|

|Out of Afghanistan

|29 August 2021

|Alexander Burnett

|Kabul, Afghanistan

|Chris Donahue, becoming the last American soldier to leave Afghanistan before the Fall of Kabul

|