The 100 Most Influential Photos of All Time
November 23, 2016 6:59 AM Subscribe
Time magazine presents what it believes to be the 100 most influential photos of all time, from Joseph Nicéphore Niépce's 1826 View from the Window at Le Gras (the first known permanent photograph) to Nilüfer Demir's Alan Kurdi (a three-year-old refugee from Syria washed up on a Turkish shore). WARNING: Many of the images are of violence, death, loss, and their aftermath.
Most influential photos - to Americans - of all time, obviously.
And yeah, no Afghan girl. I wonder if it, and others, were tied up in rights disputes?
posted by aureliobuendia at 7:23 AM on November 23, 2016 [4 favorites]
And yeah, no Afghan girl. I wonder if it, and others, were tied up in rights disputes?
posted by aureliobuendia at 7:23 AM on November 23, 2016 [4 favorites]
"Windblown Jackie" is creepy because she was stalked by the photographer who took it. It's included because it reflects our celebrity culture, they say. I don't think that's reason enough to use it.
posted by alasdair at 7:25 AM on November 23, 2016
posted by alasdair at 7:25 AM on November 23, 2016
Very solid list. I have no serious objections. On a list of 100 items, there's always going to be some disagreement on the particulars, but I see no glaring omissions. I would want a more international focus (was that Michael Jordan pic really one of the 100 most influential photos of all time), but still a solid list.
Since I went to school for art photography, here's a couple from the art world that could have made the list:
* Nan Goldin, One Month After Being Battered, 1984. A photo that itself hits you in the face like a punch. This is from a diaristic project called The Ballad of Sexual Dependency. I've seen it exhibited in a gallery and it's powerful stuff. She has a way with colors.
* William Eggleston, Untitled (supermarket boy with carts), 1965. It's hard to pick one representative photo from Eggleston, but he was the one who made color photography possible in the art world. Before Eggleston, color photography wasn't considered art. (Which is funny because outside the insular art photography world, the B&W photos they held up as art were not considered "real art" either.)
* Francesca Woodman, Untitled, 1977-78. She only lived to be 21 before she committed suicide, which only adds to the mystique of her (dare I say it) haunting photographs. This girl's small corpus has generated a disproportionate amount of verbiage.
* Sally Mann, The Perfect Tomato, 1990. Warning: nude child. Her work generated a ton of controversy, because she is selling nude photographs of her children. The pictures are not pornographic in nature, and wouldn't look amiss in any family album except for their artistic quality. (See also: Jock Sturges. I'm of the opinion that the man is pretty creepy, but his photos from a nudist colony in France are not porn. His home was raided by the FBI, but he was never convicted of anything. )
posted by simen at 7:25 AM on November 23, 2016 [23 favorites]
Since I went to school for art photography, here's a couple from the art world that could have made the list:
* Nan Goldin, One Month After Being Battered, 1984. A photo that itself hits you in the face like a punch. This is from a diaristic project called The Ballad of Sexual Dependency. I've seen it exhibited in a gallery and it's powerful stuff. She has a way with colors.
* William Eggleston, Untitled (supermarket boy with carts), 1965. It's hard to pick one representative photo from Eggleston, but he was the one who made color photography possible in the art world. Before Eggleston, color photography wasn't considered art. (Which is funny because outside the insular art photography world, the B&W photos they held up as art were not considered "real art" either.)
* Francesca Woodman, Untitled, 1977-78. She only lived to be 21 before she committed suicide, which only adds to the mystique of her (dare I say it) haunting photographs. This girl's small corpus has generated a disproportionate amount of verbiage.
* Sally Mann, The Perfect Tomato, 1990. Warning: nude child. Her work generated a ton of controversy, because she is selling nude photographs of her children. The pictures are not pornographic in nature, and wouldn't look amiss in any family album except for their artistic quality. (See also: Jock Sturges. I'm of the opinion that the man is pretty creepy, but his photos from a nudist colony in France are not porn. His home was raided by the FBI, but he was never convicted of anything. )
posted by simen at 7:25 AM on November 23, 2016 [23 favorites]
Those Francesca Woodman photos are incredible.
posted by chimpsonfilm at 7:40 AM on November 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by chimpsonfilm at 7:40 AM on November 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
Nessie, but no Bigfoot? I am disappoint.
posted by davidmsc at 7:44 AM on November 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by davidmsc at 7:44 AM on November 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
I knew the story of Emmett Till, but had somehow managed to never see that picture before. Heartbreaking and terrifying.
posted by threetwentytwo at 7:45 AM on November 23, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by threetwentytwo at 7:45 AM on November 23, 2016 [2 favorites]
threetwentytwo: Ditto. Wow.
posted by RolandOfEld at 7:47 AM on November 23, 2016
posted by RolandOfEld at 7:47 AM on November 23, 2016
I came to browse through a bunch of pictures I'd probably recognize, I stayed to read the excellent stories behind every one. Excellent work.
posted by Tevin at 7:56 AM on November 23, 2016 [5 favorites]
posted by Tevin at 7:56 AM on November 23, 2016 [5 favorites]
No Afghan Girl?
Licensing Nat Geo pictures is not cheap.
posted by davros42 at 7:59 AM on November 23, 2016 [3 favorites]
Licensing Nat Geo pictures is not cheap.
posted by davros42 at 7:59 AM on November 23, 2016 [3 favorites]
Nilüfer Demir's Alan Kurdi
I didn't even pick up that issue for fear of that picture again. As a parent of small children, I just can't emotionally handle seeing that picture anymore.
posted by leotrotsky at 8:01 AM on November 23, 2016 [3 favorites]
I didn't even pick up that issue for fear of that picture again. As a parent of small children, I just can't emotionally handle seeing that picture anymore.
posted by leotrotsky at 8:01 AM on November 23, 2016 [3 favorites]
I didn't even pick up that issue for fear of that picture again. As a parent of small children, I just can't emotionally handle seeing that picture anymore.
I didn't recognize it from the thumbnail and clicked on it like a sucker. Fuck.
posted by RustyBrooks at 8:08 AM on November 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
I didn't recognize it from the thumbnail and clicked on it like a sucker. Fuck.
posted by RustyBrooks at 8:08 AM on November 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
Solid list but as simen says, definitely more heavily weighted toward journalism than art photography.
posted by octothorpe at 8:13 AM on November 23, 2016
posted by octothorpe at 8:13 AM on November 23, 2016
Good but... too US-centric. It seems that most of the photos of achievement and beauty are on American themes, from sport to space exploration to celebrity; most of the photos of non-Western scenes and countries are of suffering or warfare of some kind. So, it's interesting how weighted they are to a particular culture or worldview. I guess this reflects Time's own biases. Not a fair reflection of how the world really is, but maybe a reflection of this particular way of seeing the world.
posted by plep at 8:20 AM on November 23, 2016 [6 favorites]
posted by plep at 8:20 AM on November 23, 2016 [6 favorites]
Too many feels
posted by blue_beetle at 8:51 AM on November 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by blue_beetle at 8:51 AM on November 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
Sooo, physical clickbait listicle?
posted by reiichiroh at 9:18 AM on November 23, 2016
posted by reiichiroh at 9:18 AM on November 23, 2016
Is there way to see the photo without the text overlay? If I click on the thumbnail, I get the title, date, and photographer overlaid onto the photo. "Explore the photograph" leads to a broken jpg icon. I'm using Chrome, no adblock.
Oh, I see if I click on the broken jpg, it does show it fullscreen, but then I have to exit the fullscreen, go back to the previous page, click another photograph I want to see, scroll down, click the broken jpg, etc etc.
posted by AFABulous at 9:28 AM on November 23, 2016
Oh, I see if I click on the broken jpg, it does show it fullscreen, but then I have to exit the fullscreen, go back to the previous page, click another photograph I want to see, scroll down, click the broken jpg, etc etc.
posted by AFABulous at 9:28 AM on November 23, 2016
VERY surprised that I don't see photographer Bob Jackson's award-winner photo of Jack Ruby shooting Oswald in 1963. Did I miss it? Truly it belongs here.
posted by Seekerofsplendor at 10:00 AM on November 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Seekerofsplendor at 10:00 AM on November 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
Nilüfer Demir's Alan Kurdi
I didn't even pick up that issue for fear of that picture again. As a parent of small children, I just can't emotionally handle seeing that picture anymore.
Without a doubt, the most affecting photo I've ever laid eyes on. My own child was 3 when this happened. I always come back to the shoes, thinking of my own struggle to get my child's shoes on in the morning and ready for the day, thinking of the parent who struggled to put those shoes on.
At this point in my life, I think my entire political philosophy boils down to "Never trust a world leader that hasn't struggled to put their three year old's shoes on in the morning."
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 10:15 AM on November 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
I didn't even pick up that issue for fear of that picture again. As a parent of small children, I just can't emotionally handle seeing that picture anymore.
Without a doubt, the most affecting photo I've ever laid eyes on. My own child was 3 when this happened. I always come back to the shoes, thinking of my own struggle to get my child's shoes on in the morning and ready for the day, thinking of the parent who struggled to put those shoes on.
At this point in my life, I think my entire political philosophy boils down to "Never trust a world leader that hasn't struggled to put their three year old's shoes on in the morning."
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 10:15 AM on November 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
The Most Beautiful Suicide is an image I just can't get out of my head. Warning, it's a suicide.
posted by chavenet at 10:54 AM on November 23, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by chavenet at 10:54 AM on November 23, 2016 [2 favorites]
Not only is the list weighted toward the US, but LIFE (or in some other essays, life, for some reason) magazine is pretty prominent. Which really isn't surprising since the list was put together by Life's sister magazine, Time. But definitely some impressive photos there, even if the list isn't perfect.
posted by TedW at 11:52 AM on November 23, 2016
posted by TedW at 11:52 AM on November 23, 2016
I was kind of expecting to see something by Diane Arbus in there; perhaps this one.
posted by TedW at 12:00 PM on November 23, 2016
posted by TedW at 12:00 PM on November 23, 2016
If anything by Diane Arbus I would have expected The Twins, which prefigured The Shining and epitomizes Arbus's work with outsiders and freaks.
posted by simen at 12:22 PM on November 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by simen at 12:22 PM on November 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
The Afghan girl photo is beautiful and memorable, but I'm not sure it influenced anything, the way the Alan Kurdi photo did.
posted by tavella at 2:29 PM on November 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by tavella at 2:29 PM on November 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
This is a great list. All the war ones remind me of how dumb a smart species we are.
posted by anothermug at 4:05 PM on November 23, 2016
posted by anothermug at 4:05 PM on November 23, 2016
Good pictures, horrible interface. Jesus.
posted by gottabefunky at 7:21 PM on November 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by gottabefunky at 7:21 PM on November 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
I'd never seen the Emmett Till photo and am feeling shaken.
posted by bonobothegreat at 7:48 PM on November 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by bonobothegreat at 7:48 PM on November 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
The people on the upper deck of "Steerage" don't look any less crowded
posted by thelonius at 7:55 PM on November 23, 2016
posted by thelonius at 7:55 PM on November 23, 2016
Starving Child And Vulture is doubly tragic. One of the most powerful photos I've ever seen.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 8:05 PM on November 23, 2016
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 8:05 PM on November 23, 2016
Life magazines' published photo of mother and child suffering Minamata disease from 1971 never fails to pain me deeply. And just about anything from Henri-Cartier Bresson renews my sense of joy
posted by xtian at 7:26 PM on November 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by xtian at 7:26 PM on November 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
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No Afghan Girl?
posted by Melismata at 7:18 AM on November 23, 2016