The best photos of all time. The most famous paintings of all time

Thousands of photographers work around the world, capturing events, places, people and animals every day, producing hundreds of thousands of photographs. But only a few become globally known, are replicated, used in modern culture and are called photo icons. And each of these photographs has its own story...

The photograph of Ernesto Che Guevara in a black beret is recognized as a symbol of the 20th century, the most famous and most reproduced photograph in the world. It was taken on March 5, 1960 in Havana during a memorial service for the victims of the explosion of the ship La Coubre, its author, Alberto Korda, then the official photographer of Fidel Castro, said that at that moment he was shocked by the expression on the face of 31-year-old Che, in which "absolute inflexibility", anger and pain were written simultaneously. At the same time, Che appeared in the photographer’s viewfinder only for a couple of seconds after Fidel’s heated speech (in which the famous words “Patria O Muerte” were used for the first time), and then retreated into the shadows again. The photograph was rejected by the editor of Revolution magazine, which upset Corda, who was convinced of the power of the work. He cropped the photo, printed it in several copies, hung one on his wall at home, and gave the rest to friends. Since this all started. By the way, Korda never asked for royalties for the use and reproduction of this photograph, but was against the commercial use of Che’s image. Especially in advertising those products that the Comandante would never support. Alberto sued, for example, the agencies Lowe Lintas and Rex Features when they began selling Smirnoff vodka using this photo. He won $50,000, which he immediately donated to Cuban medicine.

On the day this photo was taken, Einstein turned 72 years old. On March 14, 1951, almost all publications photographed him, and he was very tired and irritated. UPI photographer Arthur Sasse was one of the latter, and he tried hard to make Einstein smile. But the greatest mind of the twentieth century stuck out his tongue at the photographer instead. In 2009, the original photograph of the mischievous Einstein was sold at auction for $74,324.

The most famous photograph of one of Britain's most famous and revered politicians was taken under rather amusing circumstances. As you know, Churchill never parted with his cigar, including in photographs. And when photographer Yusuf Karsh came to him for a shoot, he was not going to cheat on himself. Yusuf first delicately placed an ashtray in front of the Prime Minister, but he ignored it, and the photographer had to say “excuse me, sir” and take Churchill’s cigar himself. “When I returned to the camera, he looked as if he wanted to devour me,” Karsh, the author of one of the most expressive portraits of all time, later recalled.

National Geographic magazine in 1984 set out to trace the genetic path of green eyes, which began in the time of Genghis Khan. During the research and collection of material for the Green Eyes project, photographer Steve McCurry photographed an Afghan girl, who, as it turned out 17 years later, was named Sharbat Gula. A photograph of a frightened, wide-eyed refugee beauty became the cover of National Geographic in 1985 and, over time, became a world-famous symbol. Afghan conflict and the suffering of refugees around the world. Now the photograph is even called the “Afghan Mona Lisa.” By the time the National Geographic team finally found Sharbat, she was already about thirty, she had returned to her native Afghanistan and had never seen this photograph or known about her worldwide fame until the moment she met NG.

Robert Capa's photograph, taken on September 5, 1936, has long been a symbol of the bloody and merciless Spanish Civil War. It depicts an armed militiaman in civilian clothes falling backwards after being shot by an enemy that was fatal to him. The photograph is very emotional, dramatic, capturing a terrible moment - so it instantly gained popularity, but at the same time, there were doubts among part of society. And now almost no one doubts that the iconic shot was staged. Firstly, it was not made at the site of the fighting, but several kilometers away from it. And secondly, Federico Borrell García, who tragically died in the photograph in an open field and was later identified, was actually shot dead while trying to hide behind a tree.

But this photo is not staged, and for more than 40 years people have been watching the endless execution of the Viet Cong Nguyen Van Lem by General Nguyen Ngoc Loan. Photographer Eddie Adams recorded the events of thirteen wars, but his most famous photograph remains this one, taken on February 1, 1968. For which he later had to apologize. The picture instantly spread across newspapers and news agencies, everyone in the States was talking about it, many with reproach and indignation - what was on it was too scary. Eddie insisted that this was not a planned shot, that it was something of a reflex, and that he did not even know what he had shot until he developed the film. And having shown it, I realized that it was impossible to hush it up. But he subsequently wrote in Time: “The general killed the Viet Cong, I killed the general with my camera. Photos are still the most powerful weapon in the world. People believe them, but photographs lie, even without such intentions. They are only half true. The photo didn't say "What would you have done if you were that general at that time and place on that hot day when you caught the so-called bad guy, after he blew up one, two or three Americans?” While General Nguyen was still alive, Adams apologized to him and his family for the irreparable damage the photo had caused to the general's honor.

Another world-famous photograph of the Vietnam War is not nearly as controversial as the previous one. This is a symbol of the horror and suffering of innocent people who fall into the hands of the military. The image, taken by South Vietnamese photographer Nick Ut, shows people fleeing napalm being rained down by South Vietnamese forces on a village. The logical center of the composition is a naked girl screaming in horror and pain. This is nine-year-old Kim Phuc, she has terrible third-degree burns on her back and the back of her legs, and she is trying to escape. After taking the photo, Nick picked up the girl and took her and the other wounded children to the hospital. Doctors were sure that she would not survive, but after 14 months in the hospital and 17 operations, Kim Phuc became practically healthy. The photographer constantly visited her both in the hospital and after her discharge, until he left Saigon three years later. Kim is still alive, she dedicated her life to medicine and helping child victims of war. She sometimes gives interviews and appears on talk shows: “Napalm is the worst pain you can imagine. Water boils at 100 degrees, and the temperature of napalm is from 800 to 1200. Forgiveness freed me from hatred. I still have a lot of scars on my body and am in a lot of pain almost constantly, but my heart is clear. Napalm is strong, but faith, forgiveness and love are much stronger. We wouldn't have wars at all if everyone could understand how to live with true love, hope and forgiveness. If that little girl in the photo could do it, ask yourself, can you too?”

Photography is a symbol of the confrontation between the power of weapons and the power of the human spirit. A single man stood in front of a column of tanks near Tiananmen Square in Beijing during the June 1989 riots. In his hands he had two ordinary plastic bags, which he shook at the tanks when they stopped. The first tank tried to go around the man, but he again stood in his way. After several unsuccessful attempts to go around it, the tanks turned off their engines, and the commander of the first spoke with the persistent peacekeeper. Then he tried to go around him again, and the man again stood in front of the tank. Four photographers captured the moment, but the world-famous photo was taken by Jeff Widener, long banned in China. The man was never identified, but he was included in Time magazine's list of the 100 most important people twentieth century.

This shocking photo not only shows the suffering of children in Sudan during the 1993 famine, but also tells the story of the moral anguish of the photographer who took the photo. Kevin Carter received a Pulitzer Prize for this photograph, and two months later he released exhaust fumes from his car into the cabin. Little exhausted girl crawling towards the camp humanitarian aid, stopped to rest, and at that time a hungry vulture swooped into the clearing and walked in circles, waiting for the death of the child. Kevin waited 20 minutes before the shot was good enough for him. And only then did he chase away the vulture, and the girl crawled on. Carter was hit with a wave of criticism and the most prestigious journalistic award. But he could not live with various financial problems, with what he saw in Sudan, and with what he himself participated in. In July 1994, he committed suicide.

The most famous kiss in the world was filmed by Albert Eisenstadt in Times Square during the celebration of Victory over Japan Day on August 14, 1945. During the crowded, noisy festivities, Eisenstadt did not have time to ask the names of the subjects in the photograph, and therefore they remained unknown for a long time. Only in 1980 was it possible to establish that the nurse in the photograph was Edith Shane. But the name of the sailor is still a mystery - 11 people said that it was them, but they could not prove it. This is what Eisenstadt said about the moment of filming: “I saw a sailor running down the street and grabbing any girl who was in his field of vision. Whether she was old or young, fat or thin, it didn’t matter to him. I ran in front of him with my Leica looking back over my shoulder, but I didn't like any of the photos. Then suddenly I saw him grab someone in white. I turned around and filmed the moment when the sailor kissed the nurse. If she had been wearing dark clothes, I would never have photographed them. As if the sailor were in a white uniform. I took 4 photos in a few seconds, but only one satisfied me.”

"Mona Lisa". Leonardo da Vinci 1503–1506

One of the most recognizable and famous paintings in the world, its full name is Portrait of Mrs. Lisa del Giocondo. The portrait depicts the Italian Lisa del Giocondo, a representative of the middle class of the Renaissance, the mother of six children. The model has shaved eyebrows and hair on the top of her forehead, which corresponds to Quattrocento fashion. Leonardo da Vinci considered this portrait one of his favorite works, often described it in his notes and undoubtedly considered her his best job. This painting rightfully tops the list of the most popular paintings in the world.

"Birth of Venus" Sandro Botticelli 1482 - 1486

An excellent illustration of the myth of the birth of Aphrodite. Naked Venus heads towards the earth in a shell, driven by the western wind Zephyr, the wind mixed with flowers - this symbolizes spring and beauty. On the shore, Aphrodite is met by one of the goddesses of beauty. After creating this painting, the artist Botticelli received global recognition, his unique writing style helped him in this; he stood out from his contemporaries with his floating rhythms, which were not used by anyone except him.

"The Creation of Adam". Michelangelo 1511

Placed on the ceiling Sistine Chapel, the fourth of nine works in the series. Michelangelo clarified the unreality of the symbiosis of heavenly and human; according to the artist, the image of God contains not phenomenal heavenly power, but creative energy that can be transmitted without touch.

"Morning in a pine forest". Ivan Shishkin, Konstantin Savitsky 1889

"Girl on the Ball". Pablo Picasso 1905

A picture of contrasts. It depicts a stopover of a traveling circus in a scorched desert. The main characters are also very contrasting: A strong, sad, monolithic man sits on a cube. At that time, next to him, on a ball, a fragile and smiling girl is balancing.

"The last day of Pompeii". Karl Bryullov 1833

During a visit to Pompeii in 1828, Bryulov made many sketches and sketches, he already knew what the final work would look like. The painting was presented in Rome, but then it was moved to the Louvre, where many critics and art historians admired Karl’s talent. After this work, world classics came to him, but unfortunately, most people associate his work only with this painting.

One of the most recognizable paintings

"Starlight Night". Vincent van Gogh 1889

An iconic painting by the Dutch artist, which he painted based on his memories (which is not typical for Van Gogh), because at that time he was in the hospital. After all, when the attacks of rage passed, he was quite adequate and could draw. To do this, his brother Theo agreed with the doctors, and they allowed him to work with paints in the ward. Why did Van Gogh cut off his ear? Read in my article.

"The Ninth Wave" Ivan Aivazovsky 1850

One of the most famous paintings on a marine theme (marina). Aivazovsky was from Crimea, so it’s not difficult to explain his love for water and the sea. The ninth wave - artistic image, inevitable danger and tension, one might also say: the calm before the storm.

"Girl with a Pearl Earring." Jan Vermeer 1665

An iconic scene by a Dutch artist, it is also called the Dutch Mona Lisa. This work is not entirely portrait, but to a greater extent belongs to the “troni” genre, where the emphasis is not on the portrait of a person, but on his head. The girl with a pearl earring is popular in modern culture, and several films have been made about her.

"Impression. Rising Sun" Claude Monet 1872

The painting that gave rise to the “impressionism” genre. The popular journalist Louis Leroy, after visiting an exhibition with this work, crushed Claude Monet, he wrote: “the wallpaper hanging on the wall looks more finished than this “Impression”.” It is considered a canonical representative of the genre, more popular than many other paintings by great artists.

Afterword and small request

If you found this material useful and liked it, please tell your friends on this page! This will greatly help develop the site and delight you with new materials! If you want to order a copy of a popular painting, then visit the page How to buy a painting. It often happens that a person is initially interested in popular paintings, and then wants to have a copy of the masterpiece on his wall.

Photography is an incredibly multifaceted art. Magnificent landscapes, photographic portraits, and advertising photographs also attract the attention of the public. Therefore, choosing the best masters is not an easy task.

Our Top 10 included the best photographers of our time in a variety of genres. Their works are known all over the world and are practically recognized as classics of photography.

Anne Geddes has been photographing children for 30 years. Books, postcards and calendars with photographs of babies in a variety of images are known all over the world. Many photographers who begin working with children draw inspiration from Geddes’s photographs. Anna's secret to success is simple; she is sure that children are the only real joy in life.

9. Paul Hansen is the best photojournalist

Hansen is one of the most famous photojournalists in the world. Seven times he became the best photographer in Sweden, twice - winner of the prestigious photo competition POYi (International Photography of the Year). And in 2013, Paul won the World Press Photo competition with a photograph taken at the funeral of two young children killed in Palestine.

8. Terry Richardson - Best Advertising Photographer

Richardson's photographs are sometimes very unusual, but they always attract the eye and are remembered for a long time. Terry's clients include such famous brands as Gucci, Sisley, Levi's, Eres, Miu Miu, Chloe, APC, Nike, Carolina Herrera, Kenneth Cole and many others. Richardson's photographs are regularly published by Vogue, I-D, GQ, Harper's Bazaar, Dazed and Confused, W and Purple.

7. Denis Reggie – the best wedding photographer

Reggae became a revolutionary in the industry wedding photo. After all, it was he who came up with the idea of ​​taking photographs in a reportage style. Denis’s works adorn not only family photo albums, but also the pages of such publications as W, Elle, Vogue, Town and Country, Glamour, and Harper’s Bazaar

6. Patrick Demarchelier - the best fashion photographer

Over his long career, Demarchelier has worked with such publications as Vogue, Elle, Marie Claire and Harper's Bazaar. They ordered their Dior advertising campaigns from him, TAG Heuer, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Celine, Yves Saint Laurent, Calvin Klein, Lacoste and Ralph Lauren.

5. Yuri Artyukhin - the best wildlife photographer

Researcher at the Laboratory of Ornithology, Pacific Institute of Geography, Russian Academy of Sciences – passionate fan birds. It is the photographs of birds that have repeatedly received prestigious prizes and awards at various competitions in Russia and abroad.

4. Helmut Newton is the best nude photographer

Newton's nude photographs are known throughout the world. For his contribution to the art of photography, Newton was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, the French Order of Arts and Letters, and the Monegasque Order of Arts, Letters and Science.

3. David Dubilet - best underwater photographer

Beneath the surface of the water, Dubile has been working for five decades. His work is often published by National Geographic. David is the winner of many prestigious awards in the field of photography. He films the underwater world both in equatorial waters and under the ice at the north and south poles.

2. Steve McCurry - National Geographic's most famous photographer

Steve became famous for his photograph of an “Afghan girl,” which National Geographic put on the cover in 1985. The picture was soon recognized as the most famous photograph in the history of the magazine. In addition to the famous photograph, McCurry has many excellent works in the genre of photo reporting.

1. Ron Galella - the most famous paparazzi

Garella is a pioneer of the paparazzi industry. Among the stars who became Ron's “victims” are Julia Roberts, Madonna, Al Pacino, Woody Allen, Sophia Loren. Marlon Brando broke Garella's jaw and knocked out five teeth, and Jacqueline Kennedy sued the photographer, who forbade Ron to approach Jackie closer than 20 meters.

All photographs shown below are winners of World Press photo competitions over the years.

“The most famous photograph that no one has seen,” is what Associated Press photographer Richard Drew calls his photograph of one of the World Trade Center victims who jumped from a window to his death on 9/11. “On that day, which, more than any other day in history, was captured on cameras and film,” Tom Junod later wrote in Esquire, “the only taboo, by common consent, was the pictures of people jumping out of windows.” Five years later, Richard Drew's Falling Man remains a terrible artifact of the day that should have changed everything, but didn't.

A photograph that showed the face of the Great Depression. Thanks to legendary photographer Dorothea Lange, for many years Florence Owen Thompson was literally the personification of the Great Depression. Lange took the photo while visiting a vegetable picker camp in California in February 1936, wanting to show the world the resilience of a proud nation in difficult times. Today, similar photographs (as well as videos) can be taken using the xiaomi yi action camera, but in those days they used more primitive cameras. Dorothea's life story turned out to be as attractive as her portrait. At 32, she was already a mother of seven children and a widow (her husband died of tuberculosis). Finding themselves practically penniless in a labor camp for displaced people, her family ate poultry meat that the children managed to shoot and vegetables from the farm—the same way the other 2,500 camp workers lived. The publication of the photo had the effect of a bomb exploding. Thompson's story, which appeared on the covers of the most respected publications, caused an immediate response from the public. The IDP Administration immediately sent food and basic necessities to the camp. Unfortunately, by this time the Thompson family had already left their home and received nothing from the government’s generosity. It should be noted that at that time no one knew the name of the woman depicted in the photograph. Only forty years after the publication of this photograph, in 1976, Thompson “revealed” herself by giving an interview to one of the central newspapers.

Stanley Forman/Boston Herald, USA. July 22, 1975, Boston. A girl and a woman fall trying to escape a fire.

Photographer Nick Yut took a photo of a Vietnamese girl running away from a napalm explosion. It was this photo that made the whole world think about the Vietnam War. The photo of 9-year-old girl Kim Phuc on June 8, 1972 has gone down in history forever. Kim first saw this photo 14 months later in a hospital in Saigon, where she was being treated for strange burns. Kim still remembers running from her siblings on the day of the bombing and cannot forget the sound of the bombs falling. A soldier tried to help and poured water on her, not realizing that this would make the burns even worse. Photographer Nick South helped the girl and took her to the hospital. At first, the photographer doubted whether to publish a photo of a naked girl, but then decided that the world should see this photo. Later the photo was called the best photo of the 20th century. Nick Yut tried to protect Kim from becoming too popular, but in 1982, when the girl was studying at medical university, the Vietnamese government found her, and Kim's image has been used in propaganda circuits ever since. “I was under constant control. I wanted to die, this Photo haunted me,” says Kim. Later there was immigration to Cuba, where she was able to continue her education. There she met her future husband. Together they moved to Canada. Many years later, she finally realized that she could not escape from this photograph, and decided to use it and her fame to fight for peace.

Fire in the Triangle Shirtwaist Company building, 1911 The American Triangle Shirtwaist Company became famous in the United States thanks to its love for the cheap labor of young immigrant women in its factories. Since there was still a risk that such personnel would steal, work time The shop doors were closed until the end of the shift. It was this “tradition” that caused the tragedy that occurred on March 25, 1911, when a fire broke out on the ninth floor of a factory building in New York. At first, witnesses to the fire thought that the workers were saving the most expensive fabrics from the fire, but, as it turned out, people locked in the burning workshop themselves jumped out of the windows. After this, a nationwide campaign aimed at improving occupational safety began in the United States.

Biafra, 1969 When the Igbo tribe declared themselves independent from Nigeria in 1967, Nigeria imposed a blockade on their former eastern region Nigeria - the newly proclaimed Republic of Biafra. The war between Nigeria and Biafra lasted 3 years. More than a million people died during this war, mainly from starvation. War photographer Don McCullin, who took this photograph, commented on his visit to the camp where 900 starving children were being held: “I don’t want to photograph soldiers on the battlefield anymore.”

Mustafa Bozdeinir/Hurriyet Gazetesi, Türkiye. October 30, 1983. Koyunoren, eastern Türkiye. Kezban Ozer found her five children dead after a devastating earthquake.

James Nachtwey/Magnum Photos/USA for Liberation, USA/France. November 1992. Bardera, Somalia. A mother lifts the body of her child, who has died of hunger, to take him to the grave.

Hector Rondon Lovera/Diario La Republica, Venezuela. June 4, 1962, Puerto Cabello naval base. A sniper fatally wounded a soldier who is now holding on to priest Luis Padillo.

Yasushi Nagao/Mainichi Shimbun, Japan. October 12, 1960, Tokyo. A right-wing student kills the chairman of the Socialist Party, Inejiro Asanuma.

Helmut Pirath, Germany. 1956, eastern Germany. The daughter meets a German prisoner of World War II, who was released by the USSR.

Mike Wells, UK. April 1980. Karamoja region, Uganda. A terribly hungry boy and a missionary.

DEATH OF GOEBBELS. During the capture of Berlin by Soviet troops, the main ideologist of fascism, Joseph Goebbels, took poison, having first poisoned his family - his wife and six children. The corpses, according to his dying order, were burned. Here is a photograph showing the corpse of a criminal. The photo was taken in the Imperial Chancellery building on May 2, 1945 by Major Vasily Krupennikov. On the back of the photo, Vasily wrote: “We covered Goebbels’s sensitive spot with a handkerchief, it was very unpleasant to look at it...”

All the pain is in just one look... (Henry Cartier Bresson) The photo was taken in 1948-1949, when the author traveled to China. The photo shows a hungry boy standing for a long time in an endless line for rice.

The moments when the assassin John F. Kennedy was shot (Robert H. Jackson) The author filmed Oswald, the man who at one time took the life of the President of the United States of America, John F. Kennedy. Everywhere there were indignant people who demanded death penalty for the criminal. The photographer pressed the shutter and took another photo. Just as the flash was charging for the next shot, the killer was shot. The shot was fatal for Oswald.

The event depicted in the photograph cannot be called a worldwide tragedy (out of 97 people, 35 died), but everyone considers this photograph to be the one that marked the beginning of the oblivion of airships - the frame captured the crash of the Hindenburg airship of one well-known manufacturer. A dozen photographers from different printed publications. From that moment on, the airship was no longer considered the safest mode of transport in the world - soon its era was over.

Jean-Marc Bouju/AP. France. March 31, 2003. An Najaf, Iraq. The man tries to soften difficult conditions son in prison for prisoners of war.

The photograph of an officer shooting a handcuffed prisoner in the head not only won a Pulitzer Prize in 1969, but also changed the way Americans think about what happened in Vietnam. Despite the obviousness of the image, in fact the photograph is not as clear as it seemed to ordinary Americans, filled with sympathy for the executed man. The fact is that the man in handcuffs is the captain of the Viet Cong "revenge warriors", and on this day many unarmed civilians were shot and killed by him and his henchmen. General Nguyen Ngoc Loan, pictured left, was haunted his whole life by his past: he was refused treatment at an Australian military hospital, after moving to the US he faced a massive campaign calling for his immediate deportation, the restaurant he opened in Virginia every day was attacked by vandals. "We know who you are!" - this inscription haunted the army general all his life.

By the early summer of 1994, Kevin Carter (1960-1994) was at the height of his fame. He had just won the Pulitzer Prize, and job offers from famous magazines were pouring in one after another. “Everyone congratulates me,” he wrote to his parents, “I can’t wait to meet you and show you my trophy. This is the highest recognition of my work, which I did not dare to even dream of." Kevin Carter received the Pulitzer Prize for his photograph "Famine in Sudan", taken in the early spring of 1993. On this day, Carter specially flew to Sudan to film scenes of famine in a small village. Tired of photographing people who had died of hunger, he left the village into a field overgrown with small bushes and suddenly heard a quiet cry. Looking around, he saw a little girl lying on the ground, apparently dying of hunger. He wanted to take a photo of her, but suddenly a vulture landed a few steps away. Very carefully, trying not to spook the bird, Kevin chose the best position and took the photo. After that, he waited another twenty minutes, hoping that the bird would spread its wings and give him the opportunity to get a better shot. But the damned bird did not move and, in the end, he spat and drove it away. Meanwhile, the girl apparently gained strength and walked - or rather crawled - further. And Kevin sat down near the tree and cried. He suddenly had a terrible desire to hug his daughter.

Malcolm Brown, a 30-year-old Associated Press photographer from New York, received a telephone call asking him to be at a certain intersection in Saigon the next morning because... something very important is about to happen. He arrived there with a reporter from the New York Times, and soon a car pulled up and several Buddhist monks got out. Among them is Thich Ouang Due, who sat in the lotus position with a box of matches in his hands, while the others began to pour gasoline on him. Thich Quang Due struck a match and turned into a living torch. Unlike the crying crowd that saw him burn, he did not make a sound or move. Thich Quang Duo wrote a letter to the then head of the Vietnamese government asking him to stop the repression of Buddhists, stop detaining monks and give them the right to practice and spread their religion, but received no response.

A 12-year-old Afghan girl is a famous photograph taken by Steve McCurry in a refugee camp on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. Soviet helicopters destroyed the village of a young refugee, her entire family died, and... Before getting to the camp, the girl traveled for two weeks in the mountains. After its publication in June 1985, this photograph became a National Geographic icon. Since then, this image has been used everywhere - from tattoos to rugs, which turned the photograph into one of the most widely circulated photos in the world.

The photograph was taken on September 29, 1932, on the 69th floor during the final months of construction of Rockefeller Center.

The photograph showing the hoisting of the Victory Banner over the Reichstag spread throughout the world. Evgeny Khaldey, 1945.

Death of a Nazi functionary and his family. Vienna, 1945 Evgeniy Khaldei: “I went to the park near the parliament building to film the passing columns of soldiers. And I saw this picture. On a bench sat a woman, killed with two shots - in the head and neck, next to her were a dead teenager of about fifteen and girl. A little further away lay the corpse of the father of the family. He had a gold NSDAP badge on his lapel, and a revolver lay nearby. (...) A watchman from the parliament building ran up: “He did it, he did it, not Russian soldiers. Came at 6 am. I saw him and his family from the basement window. Not a soul on the street. He moved the benches together, ordered the woman to sit down, and ordered the children to do the same. I didn't understand what he was going to do. And then he shot the mother and son. The girl resisted, then he laid her on a bench and also shot her. He stepped aside, looked at the result and shot himself."

Kyoichi Sawada/United Press International, Japan. February 24, 1966. Tan Binh, southern Vietnam. American soldiers drag the body of a Viet Cong (South Vietnamese rebel) soldier on a leash.

"Little Grownups"... Three American girls gossip in one of the alleys of Sevilla in Spain. For a long time, a postcard with this image was the most popular in the United States.

The inimitable Marilyn Monroe Photography needs no comment! It depicts one of the best actresses of all years, Marilyn Monroe, during her break. The girl was distracted by someone and she pure chance took her gaze away from the lens. However, this gave the picture extraordinary mystery and true charm.

Republican soldier Federico Borel García is depicted facing death. The photo caused a huge shock in society. The situation is absolutely unique. During the entire attack, the photographer took only one photo, and he took it at random, without looking through the viewfinder, he did not look towards the “model” at all. And this is one of the best, one of his most famous photographs. It was thanks to this photograph that already in 1938 newspapers called 25-year-old Robert Capa “The Greatest War Photographer in the World.”

White and Colored, photograph by Elliott Erwitt, 1950.

Douglas Martin/AP. USA. September 4, 1956—Dorothy Counts, one of the first black students, goes to college.

Anonymous/New York Times. September 11, 1973, Santiago, Chile. Democratically elected President Salvador Alende seconds before his death during a military coup at the presidential palace.

Kyoichi Sawada/United Press International, Japan-September 1965, Binh Dinh, southern Vietnam. A mother and children cross a river to escape American aerial bombardment.

Photo displays terrible tragedy- November 13, 1985 eruption of the Colombian volcano Nevado del Ruiz. A muddy slurry from streams of mud and earth absorbed all living things beneath it. Over 23 thousand people died in those days. A girl, Omaira Sanchaz, was captured on camera a few hours before her death. She was unable to get out of the mud mess because her legs were pinned by a huge concrete slab. The rescuers did everything in their power. The girl behaved courageously, encouraging everyone around her. She spent three long days in a terrible trap, hoping for rescue. On the fourth, she began hallucinating and died from contracted viruses.

Take a closer look at this photo. This is one of the most remarkable photographs ever taken. The baby's tiny hand reached out from the mother's womb to squeeze the surgeon's finger. By the way, the child is 21 weeks from conception, the age when he can still be legally aborted. The tiny hand in the photo belongs to a baby who was due on December 28 last year. The photo was taken during an operation in America. The child is literally grasping for life. It is therefore one of the most remarkable photographs in medicine and a record of one of the most extraordinary operations in the world. It shows a 21-week-old fetus in the womb, just before spinal surgery was required to save the baby from serious brain damage. The operation was performed through a tiny incision in the mother's wall and this is the youngest patient. At this stage, the mother may choose to have an abortion. Little Samuel's mum said they "cried for days" when they saw the photo. She said: "This picture reminds us that my pregnancy is not an illness or a disability, it is little man. "Samuel was born completely healthy, the operation was a 100% success. The doctor's name was Joseph Bruner. When he finished the operation, he said only one thing: “Beauty!” As an addition: in some Western countries it is legal to have an abortion up to 28 weeks / in France up to 22 weeks, in the Russian Federation up to 12 weeks.

The first X-ray, 1896 On January 13, 1896, Roentgen informed Emperor Wilhelm II of his achievement. And already on January 23 in Würzburg (Germany), where the famous laboratory of V. K. Roentgen was located, at a meeting Scientific Society medical physicists, the scientist publicly performs an x-ray of the hand of one of the present members of the society - the anatomist Professor Kolliker.

At the end of April 2004, the CBS program 60 Minutes II aired a story about the torture and abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison by a group of American soldiers. The story featured photographs that were published in The New Yorker magazine a few days later. This became the biggest scandal surrounding the American presence in Iraq.

The photograph that brought war into every home. One of the first war photojournalists, Matthew Brady, was known as the creator of daguerreotypes of Abraham Lincoln and Robert E. Lee. Brady had it all: career, money, his own business. And all this (and also own life) he decided to take a risk by following the army of northerners with a camera in his hands. Having narrowly escaped capture in the very first battle in which he took part, Brady somewhat lost his patriotic fervor and began sending assistants to the front line. Over the course of several years of war, Brady and his team took more than 7,000 photographs. This is quite an impressive figure, especially considering that taking a single photo required equipment and chemicals housed inside a covered wagon pulled by several horses. Not very similar to the usual digital point-and-shoot cameras? The photographs that seemed so at home on the battlefield had a very heavy aura. However, it was thanks to them that ordinary Americans were for the first time able to see the bitter and harsh military reality, not veiled by jingoistic slogans.

By: Charles Moore/Black Star, 1963 Birmingham, Alaska, has long been known as a hotbed of conflict between its large African-American population and its white majority. The photo shows one of the episodes of the suppression of a peaceful demonstration for the rights of blacks, which was organized by Martin Luther King. The police use arrests, mounted units and shooting from guns, and poison people with dogs.

Poland - girl Teresa, who grew up in a concentration camp, draws a "house" on the board. 1948. © David Seymour

Alfred Eisenstaedt (1898-1995), a photographer working for Life magazine, walked around the square photographing people kissing. He later recalled that he noticed a sailor who “rushed around the square and kissed indiscriminately all the women in a row: young and old, fat and thin. I watched, but there was no desire to take a photo. Suddenly he grabbed something white. I barely had time to raise the camera and take a photo of him kissing the nurse.” For millions of Americans, this photograph, which Eisenstadt called “Unconditional Surrender,” became a symbol of the end of World War II.

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Time: The 100 Most Influential Photos of All Time

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The American magazine Time presented the 100 most influential photographs of all time.

Journalists, photographers, editors and historians from around the world spent nearly three years selecting the photographs for the project and conducted thousands of interviews with the authors of the photographs, their friends, family members, and the people in them.

Each photo is accompanied a detailed story about its creation.

Milk Drop Crown, Harold Edgerton, 1957

Fetus, 18 weeks, Lennart Nilsson, 1965

"The Man Who Stopped the Tanks"…Tiananmen, Jeff Widener, 1989

An iconic photograph of an unknown rebel who stood in front of a column of Chinese tanks.

Emmett Till, David Jackson, 1955

The Size of the Earth, William Anders, 1968

Heroic guerrilla, Alberto Korda, 1960

The photograph of Ernesto Che Guevara in a black beret is recognized as a symbol of the 20th century, the most famous and most reproduced photograph in the world. It was taken on March 5, 1960 in Havana during a memorial service for the victims of the La Coubre explosion.

Gone with the Wind Jackie, Ron Galella, 1971

Salvador Dali, Philippe Halsman, 1948

Star selfie at the Oscars, Bradley Cooper, 2014

Muhammad Ali and Sony Liston, Neil Leifer, 1965

Lunch Atop a Skyscraper, 1932

Photo American photographer Charles Clyde Ebbets, made by him in 1932, during the Great Depression. It is rightfully considered one of the best photographs in the world and a symbol of industrialization of the 20th century. It shows 11 workers sitting in a row on a steel beam at a great height, without safety nets, casually having lunch and chatting among themselves - as if it costs them nothing. However, 260 meters above the streets New York in times of unemployment, people were less frightened than hunger. Construction was underway on the Rockefeller Center, it was on the 69th floor.

Pillow fight, Harry Benson, 1964

View from the window of Le Grace, Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, circa 1826

Joseph Nicéphore Niépce was the first (in 1820) to find a way to fix the image obtained in a camera obscura, using asphalt varnish as a photosensitive substance. He called this process “heliography” (translated from Greek as “drawn by light”).

In 1826, using light rays, he obtained a copy of the engraving, thereby laying the foundation for reproduction technology. In the same 1826, Niépce directed a camera obscura from the window of the workshop onto the roofs of neighboring buildings and obtained, although vague, a fixed light pattern.

The resulting photograph can hardly be called successful. But its dignity is determined not by the clarity of the image, but by a completely different criterion: serial number. She is the first. The world's first photograph. And in this sense, it is not only successful, but absolutely priceless. And like all the first things, she is doomed to eternal life.

Joseph Niepce himself, as befits all great inventors, died in poverty.

Still Untitled Movie #21, Cindy Sherman, 1978

D-Day, Robert Capa, 1944

Pillars of Creation, NASA, 1995

Dovima with elephants Evening Dress from Dior, Cirque d'Hiver, Paris, August 1955, Richard Avedon

Famine in Somalia, James Nachtwey, 1992

Behind Closed Doors, Donna Ferrato, 1982

The Face of AIDS, Therese Frare, 1990

First phone photo, Philippe Kahn, 1997

Falling Man, Richard Drew, 2001

Victory over Japan Day in Times Square, Alfred Eisenstaedt, 1945

The most famous kiss in the world was filmed by Albert Eisenstadt in Times Square during the celebration of Victory over Japan Day on August 14, 1945. During the crowded, noisy festivities, Eisenstadt did not have time to ask the names of the subjects in the photograph, and therefore they remained unknown for a long time. Only in 1980 was it possible to establish that the nurse in the photograph was Edith Shane. But the name of the sailor is still a mystery - 11 people said that it was them, but they could not prove it.

This is what Eisenstadt said about the moment of filming: “I saw a sailor running down the street and grabbing any girl who was in his field of vision. Whether she was old or young, fat or thin, it didn’t matter to him. I ran in front of him with my Leica looking back over my shoulder, but I didn't like any of the photos. Then suddenly I saw him grab someone in white. I turned around and filmed the moment when the sailor kissed the nurse. If she had been wearing dark clothes, I would never have photographed them. As if the sailor were in a white uniform. I took 4 photos in a few seconds, but only one satisfied me.”

Surfing Hippos, Michael Nichols, 2000

Horse in motion, Eadweard Muybridge, 1878

The crash of the Hindenburg airship, Sam Shere, 1937

Photojournalist Sam Sheir watched as the Hindenburg landed and workers secured the mooring ropes. Suddenly he saw a bright flash and, raising the camera, pressed the button without even looking through the viewfinder. The next moment, a powerful explosion threw him to the ground and he dropped the camera. Sheir took one single photograph, but it was the one that became the symbol of the crash of the Hindenburg, and it was the one that received the dubious fame of becoming “the world’s first photograph recording the crash of an aircraft.”

Attempts on JFK, frame 313, Abraham Zapruder, 1963

Situation Room, Pete Souza, 2011

The Falling Soldier, Robert Capa, 1936

Michael Jordan, Co Rentmeester, 1984

Black Power Salute, John Dominis, 1968

Mother of Migrants, Dorothea Lange, 1936

The photograph is best known as Migrant Mother or by the headline of the newspaper article in which it was first published - "Look into Her Eyes." However, in the Library of Congress, this photograph has the following description: “A needy pea picker from California. Age 32 years. Mother of seven children. Nipomo, California"

Babe Says Goodbye, Nat Fein, 1948

Girl in a Cotton Mill, Lewis Hine, 1908

Gandhi and the Spinning Wheel, Margaret Bourke-White, 1946

Margaret Bourke-White had a rare opportunity to photograph Mahatma Gandhi, the ideological leader of India and one of the most famous and exalted personalities of the 20th century.

Bourke-White had to carefully prepare for the photo shoot, since Gandhi was very meticulous: he did not like bright light, so good lighting was not allowed, and it was impossible to talk to him (it was his day of silence). She also had to learn how to spin using a wheel before taking photographs. She overcame all these trials and obstacles without hesitation.

In the process of obtaining this immortal photograph of Mahatma Gandhi, Bourke-White suffered a number of setbacks. She had technical difficulties on both her first and second attempts: one flash bulb was broken, and another frame was blank because she forgot to put a plate in the camera.

But despite the humid Indian climate at this time, and overcoming bad feeling, she remained calm and her third attempt was successful. Margaret walked away triumphantly with this wonderful photograph of Gandhi and his spinning wheel.

This significant photograph became one of his best portraits, easily recognizable all over the world. Less than two years later he was killed. With this portrait, Bourke-White immortalized the image of Mahatma Gandhi for the whole world.

Loch Ness Monster, author unknown, 1934

On November 12, 1933, a certain Hugh Gray from the hills near Foyers took the first known photograph of the monster - an extremely low-quality blurry image of a certain S-shaped figure. Gray confirmed the information about the appearance of the creature, and experts from Kodak, having checked the negatives, said that they were genuine.

Soweto Uprising, Sam Nzima, 1976

North Korea, David Guttenfelder, 2013

Dives, Andres Serrano, 1987

Coffins, Tami Silicio, 2004

Vanishing Race, Edward S. Curtis, 1904

Terror Wars, Nick Ut, 1972

Blind Woman, Paul Strand, 1916

Raising the flag over the Reichstag, Yevgeny Khaldei, 1945

“Victory Banner over the Reichstag” (in other sources - “Red Banner over the Reichstag”) is the name of photographs from a series of photographs by Soviet war correspondent Yevgeny Khaldei, taken on the roof of the dilapidated Nazi parliament building. The photographs are widely used to illustrate the victory of the Soviet Union in the Great Patriotic War. The photographs in this series are among the most widespread photographs of the Second World War.

The Burning Monk, Malcolm Browne, 1963

Malcolm Brown photographed Vietnamese monk Thich Quang Duc, who burned himself to protest the ruthless persecution of Buddhists ruling regime. Photography has captured the hearts and minds of millions around the world.

Boulevard Temple, Louis Daguerre, 1839

Louis Daguerre took the first photograph of another person in 1838. The photo of Boulevard du Temple shows a busy street that appears deserted (shutter speed 10 minutes, so there is no movement), except for one person in the lower left of the photo (visible when zoomed in).

Iraqi girl at the checkpoint, Chris Hondros, 2005

Invasion of Prague, Josef Koudelka, 1968

Couple in raccoon coats, James VanDerZee, 1932

Winston Churchill, Yousuf Karsh, 1941

The most famous photograph of one of Britain's most famous and revered politicians was taken under rather amusing circumstances. As you know, Churchill never parted with his cigar, including in photographs. And when photographer Yusuf Karsh came to him for a shoot, he was not going to cheat on himself. Yusuf first delicately placed an ashtray in front of the Prime Minister, but he ignored it, and the photographer had to say “excuse me, sir” and take Churchill’s cigar himself.

“When I returned to the camera, he looked as if he wanted to devour me,” Karsh, the author of one of the most expressive portraits of all time, later recalled.

Abraham Lincoln, Mathew Brady, 1860

Bloody Saturday, H.S. Wong, 1937

Execution in Saigon, Eddie Adams, 1968

Hooded Man, Sergeant Ivan Frederick, 2003

Grief, Dmitri Baltermants, 1942

A photograph from the Second World War, taken by Soviet photojournalist Dmitry Baltermants in January 1942 in Crimea and subsequently gaining worldwide fame. The photograph shows the scene of the execution of civilians by the German occupiers: people shocked by grief are walking across the field, looking for relatives among the corpses lying in the snow.

Molotov, Susan Meiselas, 1979

Yosemite Stone Cathedral, Carleton Watkins, 1861

Raising the Flag over Iwo Jima, Joe Rosenthal, 1945

One of the most famous photographs WWII era taken February 23, 1945 by Joe Rosenthal. Six members of the US military plant the US flag on Mount Suribachi, highest point a very small island in essence, for which the battle was fought for more than a month.

Interestingly, the moment captured in the photo was not the first flag raising at this point. The mountain had been taken two hours earlier, and it was then that the “stars and stripes” were placed on it. But the flag was small, and they decided to replace it with a more significant one. This moment was captured by Joe Rosenthal, who with this photograph secured not only a Pulitzer Prize for himself, but also proved the existence of the Marine Corps, the effectiveness of which was then doubted.

Three of the photographed soldiers then died in fighting on the island, which continued for another month and three days after the flag was raised. And the three survivors became celebrities in the States because of this photo. The flag survived and is now kept in the Marine Corps Museum, torn and tattered.

Moonlight on a Pond, Edward Steichen, 1904

The 1904 color photograph of The Pond Moonlight was taken by Edward Steichen. Although color photography was not invented until 1907, Edward took color photographs as early as 1904. He succeeded in this thanks to the use of several layers of photosensitive rubber. The cost of the photo is estimated at $2,928,000.

Hand of Mrs. Roentgen, Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen, 1895

Criticism, Weegee, 1943

Weegee (Weegee - onomatopoeia for the sound of a police siren; real name Arthur Fellig - Arthur Fellig; 1899-1968) - American photojournalist, master of criminal chronicling. The creator of a special genre of documentary photography, capturing the nighttime New York of 1930-1950. The son of an emigrant rabbi from the Russian Empire. In the 1940s worked in Hollywood, in particular with Stanley Kubrick. Influenced many outstanding photographers of the 20th century, including Andy Warhol.

Jewish boy surrenders in Warsaw, author unknown, 1943

The Starving Child and the Vulture, Kevin Carter, 1993

Cowboy, Richard Prince, 1989

Camelot, Hy Peskin, 1953

Androgyne (6 men + 6 women), Nancy Burson, 1982

The Boat Without Smiles, Eddie Adams, 1977

Los Angeles Shell House, Julius Shulman, 1960

Los Angeles, famous Case Study House No. 22, built by the architect Per König (1925-2004) in 1960.
The photo was taken with a Sinar gimbal camera in 4"x5" format using double exposure mode - first there was a long shutter speed to catch the light of the city and, most importantly, the famous Sunset Boulevard, and finally a flash to get a good look at the models in the studio and the inside of the building itself.

Trolleybus, New Orleans, Robert Frank, 1955

Demi Moore, Annie Leibovitz, 1991

Munich Massacre, Kurt Strumpf, 1972

99 cents, Andreas Gursky, 1999

Execution in Iran, Jahangir Razmi, 1979

Chairman Mao swims in the Yangtze, author unknown, 1966

American Gothic, Gordon Parks, 1942

In 1928, sixteen-year-old Gordon Parks moved to his older sister in St. Paul, Minnesota. But soon, due to quarrels with his sister’s husband, he found himself on the street. He made a living as best he could - he played the piano in a seedy brothel, worked as a waiter's assistant, and played for pennies on the basketball team. In the late 1930s, Parks began to become interested in photography. This activity gradually grew from a hobby into talent and professionalism. At the age of 29, he created his first professional photograph, which he gave the name “American Gothic” (American Gothic).

The Hague, Erich Salomon, 1930

Valley of the Shadow of Death, Roger Fenton, 1855

Country Doctor, W. Eugene Smith, 1948

Happy Club, Malick Sidibè, 1963

Rescue from fire. Collapse, Stanley Forman, 1975

Fort Peck Dam, Margaret Bourke-White, 1936

Brian Ridley and Lyle Heather, Robert Mapplethorpe, 1979

Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare, Henri Cartier-Bresson, 1932

Photo: 100photos.time.com
Henri Cartier-Bresson owns the concept of the “decisive moment” in photography

Mushroom cloud over Nagasaki, Lieutenant Charles Levy, 1945

The photo was taken on August 9, 1945 from one of the American bombers after an atomic bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki. Total number the death toll was 80 thousand people. Three days earlier, an atomic bomb was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The explosion killed 166 thousand people. The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are the only two examples in the history of mankind of the combat use of nuclear weapons.

Betty Grable, Frank Powolny, 1943

American actress, dancer and singer. Her famous photo in a bathing suit brought her fame during the Second World War as one of the most charming girls that time. This photo was later included by Life magazine in its list of “100 photographs that changed the world.”

Allende's last stand, Luis Orlando Lagos, 1973

Mason, August Sander, 1928

Bandit's Roost, 59½ Mulberry Street, Jacob Riis, circa 1888

The most dangerous street in New York.

Gorilla in the Congo, Brent Stirton, 2007

Kent State Shooting, John Paul Filo, 1970

The Death of Neda, author unknown, 2009

Hitler at a Nazi parade, Heinrich Hoffmann, 1934

Leap to Freedom, Peter Leibing, 1961

Dead of Antietam, Alexander Gardner, 1862

In 1862, Matthew Brady presented an exhibition of photographs of the battle on the river in New York. Antietam, entitled "The Dead of Antietam" ( The Dead of Antietam). The public, accustomed to learning about the war from newspapers and idealized paintings by battle painters, was shocked.

Albino, Biafra, Don McCullin, 1969

Third class, Alfred Stieglitz, 1907

The photograph "The Steerage" became widely known four years after its creation, after Stieglitz published it in his publication "Camera Work" in 1911, dedicated to own photographs in the "new style". In 1915, he reprinted this image on a large scale using heliogravure on parchment and Japanese paper for inclusion in his last magazine.

Birmingham, Alabama, Charles Moore, 1963

Alan Kurdi, Nilüfer Demir, 2015

Bosnia, Ron Haviv, 1992

Man on the Moon, Neil Armstrong, NASA, 1969

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