For its brand-new “100 Most Influential Photos of All Time” project, Time says it curated its list by reaching out to and interviewing countless “curators, historians, and photo editors around the world[.]” From there, its editors began the arduous process of narrowing down the massive cache of photographs (and opinions about them). Says the trio of Time editors that worked on the project via Time.com:
“There is no formula that makes a picture influential. Some images are on our list because they were the first of their kind, others because they shaped the way we think. And some made the cut because they directly changed the way we live. What all 100 share is that they are turning points in our human experience.”
Photographers (and videographers), represented on the list—along with their subjects—include a wider cross-section than the average list: Harry Benson (The Beatles engaged in a pillow fight), Ron Galella (Jackie Onassis walking the streets of New York City), Nat Fein (Babe Ruth retiring at Yankee Stadium), Annie Leibovitz (a pregnant Demi Moore on the cover of Vanity Fair), Abraham Zapruder (the Kennedy assassination), and Malcolm Browne (the burning monk in Vietnam).
Take a look at some of our favorite selections below.
Black Power Salute (John Dominis/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)
To view Time‘s interactive “virtual museum” for the project, which includes all 100 photos, complementary essays, and 20 original short documentaries, click here. Additionally, Time is publishing a companion hardcover book for the series, which can be purchased here.
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