# The most famous photographs in history

The images that changed how we see the world, as chosen by TIME's curators and historians for its 100 most influential photographs, plus a few more that every list includes.

- 157 votes · 20 items
- Dec 16, 2022 · Erin S.
- https://even.best/en/l/2553/the-most-famous-photographs-in-history

## Top 20

1. **Migrant Mother — Dorothea Lange** (11 · ▲13 ▼2) — 1936. The face of the Great Depression.
2. **Guerrillero Heroico — Alberto Korda** (11 · ▲11 ▼0) — 1960. Che Guevara; one of the most reproduced images ever.
3. **Tank Man — Jeff Widener** (11 · ▲11 ▼0) — 1989. A man facing a column of tanks in Beijing.
4. **V-J Day in Times Square — Alfred Eisenstaedt** (10 · ▲11 ▼1) — 1945. A sailor's kiss on the day the war ended.
5. **Earthrise — William Anders** (10 · ▲11 ▼1) — 1968. The Earth rising over the Moon, from Apollo 8.
6. **The Terror of War — Nick Ut** (8 · ▲8 ▼0) — 1972. Children fleeing a napalm attack in Vietnam.
7. **Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima — Joe Rosenthal** (7 · ▲8 ▼1) — 1945. Six Marines and a flag.
8. **View from the Window at Le Gras — Nicéphore Niépce** (6 · ▲6 ▼0) — c. 1826. The oldest surviving camera photograph.
9. **Saigon Execution — Eddie Adams** (5 · ▲8 ▼3) — 1968. A street execution during the Tet Offensive.
10. **Pale Blue Dot — Voyager 1** (5 · ▲7 ▼2) — 1990. The Earth as a speck from six billion kilometres away.
11. **The Burning Monk — Malcolm Browne** (5 · ▲6 ▼1) — 1963. Thích Quảng Đức's self-immolation in Saigon.
12. **A Man on the Moon — Neil Armstrong** (5 · ▲5 ▼0) — 1969. Buzz Aldrin on the lunar surface.
13. **The Falling Man — Richard Drew** (5 · ▲5 ▼0) — 2001. A man falling from the World Trade Center.
14. **Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare — Henri Cartier-Bresson** (4 · ▲4 ▼0) — 1932. A man leaping over a puddle: the "decisive moment".
15. **Pillars of Creation — Hubble** (4 · ▲4 ▼0) — 1995. Towers of gas in the Eagle Nebula.
16. **Lunch atop a Skyscraper** (3 · ▲5 ▼2) — 1932. Eleven workers eating on a beam over New York.
17. **Starving Child and Vulture — Kevin Carter** (2 · ▲5 ▼3) — 1993. A famine image from Sudan that won the Pulitzer.
18. **Afghan Girl — Steve McCurry** (2 · ▲4 ▼2) — 1984. The green eyes on a National Geographic cover.
19. **Abraham Lincoln — Mathew Brady** (2 · ▲3 ▼1) — 1860. The portrait that helped make Lincoln president.
20. **Milk Drop Coronet — Harold Edgerton** (1 · ▲2 ▼1) — 1957. A splash frozen in time; it laid the groundwork for electronic flash.

How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.