Iconic photos include Annie Leibovitz’s portrait of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Ansel Adams’s view of the Tetons, and William Anders’s Earthrise. Some record a historic event. Others change how we see an ordinary subject or show something the eye cannot follow.
These 30 famous photographs and image sequences span portraiture, science, sport, architecture, and exploration. For each, you’ll find its story and a detail to look for in the picture, with dates and photographer credits where the records establish them. Fame does not make one photograph the “best photo ever taken”; the interest lies in how each picture works.
The opening photograph is Kevin Carter’s Starving Child and Vulture, made in Sudan in 1993. It received the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography.
Starving Child and Vulture | Kevin Carter 1993
1. John Lennon and Yoko Ono – Annie Leibovitz (1980)
Annie Leibovitz photographed John Lennon and Yoko Ono at their New York home on December 8, 1980, for Rolling Stone. Lennon was killed later that day. The portrait appeared on the magazine’s January 22, 1981, cover.
This portrait photography session produced an image built around an embrace: Lennon curls around Ono, who remains clothed. Rolling Stone’s account of the session recalls Leibovitz showing the couple a Polaroid from her instant camera.
Look at the contrast between their positions and clothing. That contrast gives the picture its force before you know the events that followed.
Annie Leibovitz became one of the world’s most famous portrait photographers. Her portraits give familiar public figures an unexpected presence.
2. Pillars of Creation – NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope (1995)
Hubble’s 1995 Pillars of Creation image shows columns of gas and dust in the Eagle Nebula. It is a view of a star-forming region, not Hubble’s first photograph.
Hubble launched aboard Discovery in 1990. Its primary mirror had a flaw that blurred its early images; a servicing mission installed corrective optics in 1993. The telescope was already observing space before the Pillars image was made.
The picture combines observations through different filters. Its colours help distinguish emissions from different elements. The stepped corner comes from the arrangement of the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2’s detectors.
For photographers interested in the stars, the lesson is how imaging can reveal detail that ordinary vision cannot see.
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3. D-Day – Robert Capa (1944)
Robert Capa photographed American troops at Omaha Beach during the Normandy landings on June 6, 1944. He was covering the invasion for LIFE. The Met’s collection record identifies this photograph as a scene from those landings.
The soldier in the surf, the low viewpoint, the texture, and the blurriness make the danger feel immediate. The blur and low viewpoint give the frame a sense of movement.
The frame puts the viewer close to the water and the soldiers. Its blur is part of the experience of looking at a landing under fire.
4. The Tetons and the Snake River – Ansel Adams (1942)
Ansel Adams made this view of Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming in 1942. The winding river leads the eye from the foreground towards the mountains.
The National Archives places it in Adams’s work for a National Park Service mural project commissioned in 1941. The project was halted during World War II, but the photographs survived.
As landscape photography, it combines an identifiable place with a strong arrangement of light and dark. Follow the bright river, then compare it with the shaded forest and the clouds above the ridge.
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5. Dalí Atomicus – Philippe Halsman (1948)
Philippe Halsman’s 1948 portrait turns Salvador Dalí’s surrealism into a physical scene. Dalí jumps while cats and water cross the frame. A chair, easel, and painting appear suspended.
MoMA’s account says the photograph took 28 attempts and connects it with Dalí’s painting Leda Atomica. It is an example of creative photography that depends on a planned performance and timing.
The Library of Congress holds an unretouched version, which helps distinguish the setup from the finished print. Look at the directions of the water and bodies: several movements must work together within one frame.
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6. First Digital Image – Russell Kirsch (1957)
This small portrait was scanned into a computer in 1957. The history of the first digital camera is a different story: this image began as a scan of a physical photograph. Russell Kirsch and colleagues at the National Bureau of Standards used a rotating-drum scanner and the SEAC computer to turn a photograph into numerical information.
NIST identifies the subject as Kirsch’s three-month-old son, Walden, and gives the image dimensions as 176 × 176 pixels.
Its low resolution is part of its importance. The picture demonstrates the step from a physical photograph to an image a computer could process.
7. Lunch Atop a Skyscraper – Photographer Unconfirmed (1932)
Eleven ironworkers sit on a steel beam during the construction of Rockefeller Center’s RCA Building in 1932. It was a publicity photograph, rather than a chance record of an ordinary lunch break.
Rockefeller Center’s history places the scene at the building’s 69th floor. It also explains the research into the men’s identities. Some have been identified; the photographer remains unconfirmed.
What makes the photography composition memorable is the contrast between the men’s relaxed poses and the apparent drop below them.
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8. View from the Window at Le Gras – Joseph Nicéphore Niépce (1827)
The Harry Ransom Center dates this heliograph to 1827. It is the earliest surviving photograph made with a camera obscura, a more precise description than “the first image known to man.”
Niépce coated a polished pewter plate with light-sensitive bitumen and exposed it to the view from an upstairs window at his home in Saint-Loup-de-Varennes, France. The Center describes an exposure lasting several days.
The buildings and courtyard are difficult to read, but their permanence was the breakthrough. Here, natural light left a lasting image on a prepared surface.
9. V-J Day in Times Square – Alfred Eisenstaedt (1945)
Alfred Eisenstaedt photographed a sailor kissing a woman in Times Square during celebrations of Japan’s surrender in August 1945. The uniforms, crowd, and city streets give this black and white photography its historical setting.
The LIFE Picture Collection’s account identifies the woman as dental assistant Greta Zimmer Friedman and records her statement that the kiss was nonconsensual. The pair should not be described as a romantic couple.
The image has often represented the end of wartime. Its history also shows why the people in a famous photograph matter as much as the symbol viewers make of it.
10. How Life Begins – Lennart Nilsson
Lennart Nilsson’s photographs of prenatal development reached an international audience through LIFE’s 1965 essay Drama of Life Before Birth and his book A Child Is Born.
His official archive explains that the first edition used macro lenses and light microscopy. Later editions used further techniques, including endoscopy. This was a series developed over years, rather than a single first-ever view inside a womb.
For macro photographers, the picture shows how scale and lighting can make a normally unseen subject legible. The glowing edges and surrounding darkness draw attention to the shape of the developing body.
11. Betty Grable – Frank Powolny (1943)
Frank Powolny’s publicity portrait of Betty Grable, generally dated to 1943, became a familiar pin-up during World War II. Grable turns away from the camera and looks back over her shoulder.
A Library of Congress film essay identifies Powolny and describes the photograph’s wartime popularity. It was not the first pin-up photograph.
The pose, bathing suit, and smile make the image immediately recognisable. Photographers interested in boudoir photography can study how the turn of the shoulders leads the eye back towards the face.
12. Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare – Henri Cartier-Bresson (1932)
Henri Cartier-Bresson photographed this leap behind the Gare Saint-Lazare station in Paris in 1932. The man’s heel hangs just above the water; his reflection repeats the movement below him.
MoMA’s interpretation also points to the leaping figure on a poster in the background. These repeated shapes help explain why the picture is associated with the decisive moment.
For street photography, it is a study in timing and relationships within a frame. The suspended foot makes us anticipate the splash that follows.
13. Machu Picchu
Hiram Bingham’s 1911 visit to Machu Picchu helped bring the site to a wider international audience. Local people already knew the ruins. National Geographic’s archive records families living at the site and a local boy guiding Bingham to the stone city.
The photograph reproduced here shows overgrown stonework below a steep mountain peak. Its exact maker and capture date are unconfirmed; it should not be labelled the first photograph of a newly discovered place.
This is travel photography with historical interest. Look at the vegetation and partly visible walls, then compare their shapes with modern views of the site.
14. Milk Drop – Harold Edgerton (1957)
Harold Edgerton’s Milkdrop Coronet freezes the crown-shaped splash made by a falling drop. MIT identifies the photograph as a 1957 image.
Lighting in photography is central to the result. A brief flash can reveal a stage of motion too fast for us to study unaided.
Look at the repeated points of the crown and the small droplets above it. The photograph joins a scientific observation with a striking shape, helping explain Edgerton’s place among the most famous photographers.
15. Dovima with Elephants – Richard Avedon (1955)
Richard Avedon photographed Dovima at the Cirque d’Hiver in Paris in August 1955. The Avedon Foundation’s record identifies her evening dress as Dior.
This fashion photograph makes juxtaposition visible: the model’s extended arms, narrow waist, and flowing dress sit against the elephants’ size and rough skin.
The setting makes the clothes part of a scene rather than an isolated studio display. For commercial fashion photography, it shows how a setting and pose can give a dress a memorable context.
16. Prince Charles and Princess Diana – Tim Graham (1981)
Tim Graham photographed Prince Charles kissing Princess Diana’s hand on Buckingham Palace’s balcony on July 29, 1981. The agency record identifies the scene as their wedding day.
The veil, dress, uniform, and red balcony cloth place a small gesture within a public royal event. The image shown here is a balcony photograph, rather than one of the formal portraits made inside the palace.
For wedding photographers, the point is the gesture: a brief interaction can carry a scene more strongly than a posed lineup.
17. Pepper No. 30 – Edward Weston (1930)
Edward Weston made Pepper No. 30 in 1930. MoMA’s collection identifies the work and its date. The close view turns a familiar vegetable into folds, highlights, and shadow.
Weston’s still lifes invite us to look at form before naming the object. The pepper fills the frame, with a dark background that keeps attention on its surface.
A food photographer can study the same relationship between lighting and texture. The highlights follow the pepper’s curves while the deep shadows keep the form partly mysterious.
18. Earthrise – William Anders / NASA (1968)
William Anders made the colour Earthrise photograph aboard Apollo 8 on December 24, 1968. NASA’s image record confirms the photographer and date. Apollo 8 was the first crewed mission to orbit the Moon.
The picture reverses the viewpoint we use when we photograph the Moon: Earth is the small, bright object above another world’s horizon.
Its contrast between the grey lunar surface and Earth’s colour gives astrophotography a human reference point. The small patch of blue, white, and brown sits against the darkness of space.
19. New York City – Elliott Erwitt (1974)
The street photographer Elliott Erwitt’s low viewpoint gives a small dog an outsized presence beside a woman’s boots and a much larger dog’s legs. The Harry Ransom Center’s record identifies this New York photograph as a 1974 image.
As pet photography, it works through scale and perspective. Look once at the legs, then again at the Chihuahua: the relationships become the joke.
The playful relationships are easy to read, even with most of the larger figures outside the frame. If you practise candid documentary work, try looking at a scene from a lower position: a change in height can reveal a different relationship between subjects.
20. Golfer – Harold Edgerton (1937)
MoMA lists Edgerton’s Golfer as a 1937 work. Repeated positions of a club and body appear within a single frame, turning a swing into a pattern that can be studied.
This is multiple-flash stroboscopic photography. It differs from the single frozen instant of Milk Drop in section 14. The flash fires repeatedly during an exposure, recording successive stages of movement.
The picture belongs to the history of ultra-high-speed photography and motion analysis. The repeated positions let us compare parts of the swing that normally pass too quickly to see.
21. Rhein II – Andreas Gursky (1999)
Andreas Gursky made Rhein II in 1999. Christie’s catalogue records a chromogenic colour print mounted to Plexiglas, from an edition of six.
The river, banks, path, and sky form horizontal bands. The scene can be read almost as an abstract arrangement of colours.
Gursky’s work raises questions about photographic manipulation and the relationship between a place and a constructed image. A print’s 2011 sale put Rhein II among the most expensive images sold at auction. Its fame also invites a useful question: how much of the picture’s appeal comes from its subject, and how much from its arrangement?
22. Camera-Phone Picture of Sophie – Philippe Kahn (1997)
On June 11, 1997, Philippe Kahn used a connected camera, computer, and mobile phone to share a picture of his newborn daughter, Sophie.
Kahn’s account of the ad hoc prototype describes work on the sharing system before the birth. It was not simply a few lines of code written to pass time in the delivery room.
The importance is the connection between taking and sharing a photograph. Smartphone photography now combines those actions, but Kahn’s setup should not be confused with a commercially manufactured phone with a built-in camera.
23. Muhammad Ali over Sonny Liston – Neil Leifer (1965)
Neil Leifer photographed Muhammad Ali standing over Sonny Liston at St. Dominic’s Arena in Lewiston, Maine, on May 25, 1965. Leifer’s own archive identifies the image with their heavyweight title fight.
For sports photography, the moment matters: Ali is upright and animated while Liston lies on the canvas. The spectators remain visible behind them.
Look at the triangular composition formed by Ali’s stance and the position of his opponent. The open space around Ali makes his gesture easy to read against the busy crowd.
24. Annie G. Galloping – Eadweard Muybridge (published 1887)
The image shown here is a 16-frame sequence of the racehorse Annie G. from Muybridge’s Animal Locomotion, published in 1887. The Library of Congress identifies this plate. It is not the 1878 Sallie Gardner plate often used to tell the story of his earlier horse experiments.
The photographs show a moment when all four hooves leave the ground. The legs are gathered under the horse, rather than stretched out as they were often shown in pictures of a gallop.
The sequence makes rapid movement available for inspection frame by frame. Anyone photographing horses can see its relevance: timing changes the shape of the subject.
25. Family with David Kirby – Therese Frare (1990)
Therese Frare photographed AIDS activist David Kirby with his family in 1990. The image places illness within a family relationship: the hands, faces, and closeness around the bed carry the scene.
The original photograph is monochrome. A version in colour was used in a hard-hitting clothing advertising campaign for Benetton in 1992. Benetton’s account identifies Frare as the photographer and explains that the campaign used a colourised version of her image.
The photograph became part of public discussion about AIDS and the use of documentary images in advertising. TIME’s interview with the colourist explains how Ann Rhoney painted the version used in the campaign.
26. Case Study House No. 22 – Julius Shulman (1960)
Julius Shulman photographed Pierre Koenig’s Stahl House, also known as Case Study House No. 22, in Los Angeles in 1960. Getty’s archive identifies the house, architect, photographer, and date.
Two seated women make the glass-walled room feel inhabited. Beyond it, the city lights show the house’s position above Los Angeles.
This architectural image connects a building with a way of living. The contrast between the intimate interior and the city below gives the frame both a domestic and an expansive feel.
27. Space Writing (Self-Portrait) – Man Ray (1935)
Man Ray made Space Writing (Self-Portrait) in 1935. The Bowdoin College Museum of Art’s account describes a long exposure and a penlight moved through the air.
His blurred figure sits behind the light trails. The marks include his name, reversed from the viewer’s position. It is a self-portrait made partly through gesture.
The image connects abstract photography with light painting photography. A moving light can create a series of swirls and lines, while the open shutter records their path. The light trails become marks that the camera can record but that do not remain in the room.
28. Eiffel Tower Construction (1887–1889)
This montage brings together 18 views of the Eiffel Tower as it rises above Paris. The dates printed below the frames run from 1887 to 1889.
The tower’s official history places its construction in those years. The maker of this particular montage is not identified in the reproduced image.
Look at what a repeated viewpoint adds. The individual pictures show stages of construction; together, they make a process visible. The repeating frames turn a large building project into a readable visual sequence.
29. Early X-ray Arteriogram of an Injected Child (1899)
The Science Photo Library record describes an 1899 X-ray made at St. Thomas’ Hospital in London and published in Archives of the Roentgen Ray as An injected infant.
It records a cadaver whose arteries had been injected with mercury. This is a historical radiograph, not a procedure to reproduce or guidance for imaging a living child.
The branching vessels show how imaging could reveal internal anatomy. The pattern makes the image both a medical record and an unusual view of the human body.
30. Boston from a Balloon – James Wallace Black (1860)
James Wallace Black made Boston, as the Eagle and the Wild Goose See It in 1860 from Samuel King’s balloon. The Met identifies the photographer and work.
These were the first aerial photographs made in America. Nadar had photographed Paris from the air two years earlier, in 1858. The distinction matters when describing this early view: its place in American photography is clear, but aerial photography had already begun in France.
From above, streets become lines and rooftops become patterns. Drone photography offers a modern way to explore the same change in viewpoint.
What These Iconic Photos Show Us
Some of these pictures depend on timing; others depend on a constructed scene, a new imaging method, or a viewpoint few people had seen. Their histories also show why captions and attribution deserve as much care as composition.
Choose one image and look beyond its fame. Follow its lines, compare its light and dark areas, and identify the detail that holds your attention. Then read the source record: what the picture shows and what happened outside the frame are different parts of its story.
