Daily · 18 June 2026
Top 100 Iconic Photographs of All Time
Ranked from 100 down to 1. Generated by /lad, illustrated by /iad.
#1
Migrant Mother
Dorothea Lange, 1936. Florence Owens Thompson and her children at a Nipomo pea-pickers camp — the defining image of the Great Depression.
#2
V-J Day in Times Square
Alfred Eisenstaedt, 1945. The sailor kissing a nurse in Times Square on the day Japan surrendered. LIFE magazine cover.
#3
Tank Man
Jeff Widener, 1989. Unknown Beijing protester blocking a column of T-59 tanks the day after the Tiananmen Square massacre.
#4
Earthrise
Bill Anders, 1968. Earth rising over the lunar horizon during Apollo 8. The photograph that launched the modern environmental movement.
#5
The Blue Marble
Apollo 17 crew, 1972. The first photograph of the fully illuminated Earth from space. Most-reproduced image in history.
#6
Pale Blue Dot
Voyager 1, 1990. Earth as a sub-pixel speck from 6 billion km away. Triggered Carl Sagan's famous reflection.
#7
Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima
Joe Rosenthal, 1945. Six US Marines raising the flag on Mt Suribachi. Pulitzer Prize 1945.
#8
The Falling Soldier
Robert Capa, 1936. Spanish Republican militiaman at the moment of being shot during the Spanish Civil War. Contested authenticity.
#9
The Terror of War (Napalm Girl)
Nick Ut, 1972. Phan Thị Kim Phúc fleeing a napalm strike in Trảng Bàng, Vietnam. Pulitzer Prize 1973; later catalyst for ending the war.
#10
Saigon Execution
Eddie Adams, 1968. South Vietnamese Brig. Gen. Loan executing a Viet Cong prisoner. Pulitzer Prize 1969.
#11
Guerrillero Heroico
Alberto Korda, 1960. Che Guevara at a Havana funeral. The most-reproduced photographic portrait in history.
#12
Afghan Girl
Steve McCurry, 1984. Sharbat Gula in a Pakistan refugee camp. National Geographic cover, June 1985.
#13
Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare
Henri Cartier-Bresson, 1932. Man leaping over a puddle behind the Paris train station. Cartier-Bresson's decisive-moment manifesto.
#14
Lunch atop a Skyscraper
Charles Ebbets (attrib.), 1932. Eleven ironworkers lunching on a steel beam above 1930s Manhattan during the construction of 30 Rock.
#15
The Hindenburg Disaster
Sam Shere, 1937. The LZ 129 Hindenburg airship bursting into flames at Lakehurst, NJ. The disaster shown live on radio.
#16
The Burning Monk
Malcolm Browne, 1963. Thích Quảng Đức's self-immolation in Saigon to protest the persecution of Buddhists. World Press Photo of the Year.
#17
Vulture and the Little Girl
Kevin Carter, 1993. A vulture stalking a starving Sudanese child during the famine. Pulitzer Prize 1994; Carter took his own life three months later.
#18
The Falling Man
Richard Drew, 2001. Unidentified man falling from the North Tower on 9/11. Pulled from most US papers after a single day's run.
#19
Tetons and the Snake River
Ansel Adams, 1942. Wyoming landscape included on the Voyager Golden Records sent to interstellar space.
#20
Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico
Ansel Adams, 1941. Moon over a snow-streaked desert cemetery. The most expensive 20th-century photograph at multiple auctions.
#21
View from the Window at Le Gras
Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, 1826/27. The earliest surviving camera photograph. ~8 hour exposure. University of Texas at Austin.
#22
Boulevard du Temple
Louis Daguerre, 1838. First photograph of a human being (a shoeshiner static enough to register in the long exposure).
#23
First Tartan Ribbon (Maxwell)
Thomas Sutton, 1861. First colour photograph — of a tartan ribbon, demonstrating James Clerk Maxwell's three-colour theory.
#24
Pillars of Creation
Hubble Space Telescope, 1995. Star-forming gas pillars in the Eagle Nebula. Iconic 20th-century astronomy photograph.
#25
Black Hole (M87*)
Event Horizon Telescope, 2019. First direct image of a black hole's event horizon — supermassive in galaxy M87.
#26
The Pillars of Creation (Webb)
James Webb Space Telescope, 2022. Re-imaging of the same Eagle-Nebula pillars in infrared. 30 years after Hubble.
#27
Hubble Deep Field
Hubble Space Telescope, 1995. 10-day exposure of an apparently empty patch of sky in Ursa Major — revealing thousands of galaxies.
#28
Buzz Aldrin on the Moon
Neil Armstrong, 1969. Aldrin in his EVA suit on Tranquility Base; Armstrong reflected in his visor.
#29
Tenement Yard, Mulberry Street
Jacob Riis, 1888. NYC slum tenement-yard children. Riis's How the Other Half Lives launched social-reform photography.
#30
Breaker Boys
Lewis Hine, 1911. Child labourers picking slate at a Pennsylvania anthracite breaker. Catalyst for US child-labour laws.
#31
Power House Mechanic
Lewis Hine, 1920. Mechanic crouched over a steam pump. Defining image of industrial-age labour dignity.
#32
Identical Twins, Roselle, NJ
Diane Arbus, 1967. Inspiration for the twins in Stanley Kubrick's The Shining.
#33
Self-Portrait with Camera
Cindy Sherman, 1980s onward. Her decades of self-portraits inhabiting cultural archetypes — Untitled Film Stills foremost. Multiple landmarks across the canon.
#34
Untitled Film Still #21
Cindy Sherman, 1978. Cindy as a young woman in the city — the most-recognised image from her Untitled Film Stills series.
#35
99 Cent II Diptychon
Andreas Gursky, 2001. Düsseldorf supermarket aisle. Sold for $3.3M in 2007 — then most expensive photograph ever.
#36
Rhein II
Andreas Gursky, 1999. Minimal Rhine-river landscape. Sold for $4.3M in 2011 — set new auction record.
#37
Bliss (Windows XP wallpaper)
Charles O'Rear, 1996. Sonoma rolling-green-hill wallpaper. The most-viewed photograph in history through Windows XP.
#38
Phan Thị Kim Phúc — Reunion
Nick Ut, multi-decade follow-up to The Terror of War. The aftermath portraits are themselves part of the canon.
#39
Lange's White Angel Bread Line
Dorothea Lange, 1933. Unemployed man at a San Francisco soup kitchen. The image that launched her FSA career.
#40
Pepper No. 30
Edward Weston, 1930. A green pepper rendered like a Brâncuși sculpture. Modernist still-life canon.
#41
Nautilus Shell
Edward Weston, 1927. Macro-shot of a nautilus shell — pioneering close-up botanical-shell modernism.
#42
Steerage
Alfred Stieglitz, 1907. Immigrants on the lower deck of the Kaiser Wilhelm II — first 'photographic modernism' image. Met Museum, NY.
#43
Equivalents
Alfred Stieglitz, 1922-35 series. Cloud studies as the first 'abstract' photography — proved photographs could express feeling without subject.
#44
Salt Print of Latticed Window at Lacock Abbey
William Henry Fox Talbot, 1835. First negative photograph in history — the calotype process predecessor.
#45
Dovima with Elephants
Richard Avedon, 1955. Model Dovima in a Dior gown between two circus elephants. The defining fashion photograph.
#46
Marilyn Monroe
Richard Avedon, 1957. The most psychologically revealing Marilyn portrait in existence.
#47
Audrey Hepburn (Avedon)
Richard Avedon, 1953. Hepburn looking back over her shoulder. A signature image of the actress.
#48
The Beatles Crossing Abbey Road
Iain Macmillan, 1969. Six frames, ten minutes — the Abbey Road album cover. Pop iconography zenith.
#49
John and Yoko Embrace (Annie Leibovitz)
Annie Leibovitz, 1980. Lennon embracing Ono naked — Rolling Stone cover December 1980. Shot hours before his murder.
#50
Demi Moore on Vanity Fair
Annie Leibovitz, 1991. Pregnant Demi Moore nude on the cover — the most-copied magazine cover of the decade.
#51
Migrant Crossing, El Paso
John Moore, 2018. Honduran girl crying as her mother is searched at the US border. World Press Photo of the Year.
#52
The Aylan Kurdi Photograph
Nilüfer Demir, 2015. Three-year-old Syrian refugee Aylan Kurdi washed up on a Turkish beach. Galvanised European refugee debate.
#53
Vietnam Execution / Murder of Nguyễn Văn Lém
Eddie Adams, 1968. (#10) The execution photograph defined US public opinion on Vietnam.
#54
Tehran Hostage Crisis Photograph
Jahangir Razmi, 1980. Iranian Kurdish prisoners executed by firing squad. Pulitzer Prize 1980 (awarded 26 years later when his identity surfaced).
#55
Kent State Shootings
John Filo, 1970. Mary Ann Vecchio kneeling over the body of Jeffrey Miller. Pulitzer Prize 1971.
#56
Bloody Saturday (Shanghai Baby)
H. S. Wong, 1937. Wailing burned baby in the ruins of Shanghai's South Station after Japanese bombing.
#57
Buchenwald Liberation
Margaret Bourke-White, 1945. Prisoners staring at their American liberators behind barbed wire. The image that brought the Holocaust home.
#58
Mahatma Gandhi at His Spinning Wheel
Margaret Bourke-White, 1946. Final cover photo before Gandhi's assassination — LIFE magazine.
#59
First X-Ray (Roentgen's Wife's Hand)
Wilhelm Röntgen, 1895. The first medical X-ray — his wife's hand with wedding ring visible.
#60
Photo 51
Rosalind Franklin / Raymond Gosling, 1952. X-ray diffraction image of DNA from which Watson + Crick derived the double helix.
#61
Atomic Mushroom Cloud over Nagasaki
Charles Levy, 1945. Mushroom cloud taken from a B-29 follow-on aircraft — the second atomic bombing.
#62
Trinity Test
Berlyn Brixner, 1945. First nuclear-weapon test detonation in the New Mexico desert.
#63
Apollo 11 Plaque Photograph
Neil Armstrong / Buzz Aldrin, 1969. American flag and 'we came in peace' plaque on the Sea of Tranquility.
#64
Footprint on the Moon
Buzz Aldrin, 1969. Aldrin's bootprint in lunar regolith — one of the most reproduced images in history.
#65
Steve McCurry — Dust Storm, Rajasthan
Steve McCurry, 1983. Women shielding themselves from a sandstorm — the spiritual counterpart to Afghan Girl.
#66
Gandhi's Last Crematorium Photo
Henri Cartier-Bresson, 1948. Gandhi's funeral pyre attended by thousands of mourners.
#67
Lone Pine Tree, Cypress
Ansel Adams, c. 1944. Single tree on Monterey peninsula. Among the most reproduced Adams images.
#68
Pictures from Mars (Viking 1)
Viking 1 lander, 1976. First photograph from the surface of Mars — the lander's footpad on Chryse Planitia.
#69
Curiosity Selfie
Mars Curiosity Rover, 2012-present. Rover self-portraits from Mount Sharp — the social-media-era space self-portrait genre.
#70
Surrealism's Le Violon d'Ingres
Man Ray, 1924. Kiki de Montparnasse's back painted with f-holes. Sold for $12.4M in 2022 — most expensive photograph at auction.
#71
Tears
Man Ray, 1932. Crying close-up portrait — glass-bead tears. Tate Modern.
#72
Marlboro Man (campaign 1954)
Multiple photographers. Cowboy-imagery campaign that ran 50+ years — the longest-running ad photo legacy.
#73
Lange's Migrant Mother (Alternate Pose)
Dorothea Lange, 1936. Lesser-seen frames from the same encounter — re-evaluated since 2000s.
#74
Walker Evans — Bud Fields Family
Walker Evans, 1936. Alabama sharecropper portrait in James Agee's Let Us Now Praise Famous Men.
#75
Bob Marley Performing (Pennie Smith)
Pennie Smith, 1977-79. Iconic concert images of reggae's centre. Also famous for The Clash's London Calling cover.
#76
London Calling Cover Photo
Pennie Smith, 1979. Paul Simonon smashing his bass at the Palladium NYC. Rolling Stone's #1 rock album cover of all time.
#77
Nirvana — Nevermind Cover
Kirk Weddle, 1991. Underwater baby reaching for a dollar — the defining cover of grunge.
#78
Pink Floyd — Dark Side Cover
Hipgnosis / Storm Thorgerson, 1973. Prism splitting white light into a spectrum. Most reproduced album cover of all time.
#79
Roy Lichtenstein — Drowning Girl (source photo)
Tony Abruzzo's original 1962 comic-panel — Lichtenstein appropriated as his 1963 painting (#24 in modern-art).
#80
Audrey Hepburn at Tiffany's
Howell Conant et al., 1961. Audrey gazing into the window of Tiffany & Co. for the Breakfast at Tiffany's promo.
#81
Marilyn — Subway Skirt (Sam Shaw)
Sam Shaw, 1954. Marilyn Monroe over a subway grate from The Seven Year Itch. Cinema-marketing iconography.
#82
Wreckage of the Titanic
Robert Ballard, 1985. First photos of the wreck on the seabed. National Geographic published the find.
#83
Tutankhamun's Tomb Discovery
Harry Burton, 1922. Howard Carter peering into Tutankhamun's antechamber. Defined archaeological photography.
#84
The Last Photograph of Elvis
Sean Shaver, 1977. Elvis exiting his Cadillac the night before he died.
#85
Princess Diana Last Photograph
Romuald Rat / Jacques Langevin, 1997. Princess Diana exiting the Ritz Paris hours before the crash.
#86
Berlin Wall — Conrad Schumann Leap
Peter Leibing, 1961. East German guard Conrad Schumann leaping over barbed wire to West Berlin two days after wall construction.
#87
Berlin Wall Fall
Multiple photographers, 1989. Berliners atop the Wall the night of 9 November 1989.
#88
Mandela's Release
Multiple photographers, 1990. Nelson Mandela walking out of Victor Verster prison after 27 years. World-front-page imagery.
#89
Twin Towers Burning
Spencer Platt et al., 2001. World Trade Center on fire — the photograph that defined a century.
#90
Obama Election Night
Pete Souza, 2008. Obama waiting alone backstage on election night — the first Black US president just before the call.
#91
Situation Room — Bin Laden Raid
Pete Souza, 2011. Obama, Clinton, and team watching the raid. Most-viewed Flickr photo of 2011.
#92
Sudan — Last Male Northern White Rhino
Ami Vitale, 2018. Sudan being comforted by his keeper hours before his death. World Press Photo of the Year nominee.
#93
Lions of the Maasai Mara (Nick Brandt)
Nick Brandt, multiple. Large-format silver-gelatin portraits of African wildlife — defining contemporary nature photography.
#94
Polar Bear on Melting Ice (Paul Nicklen)
Paul Nicklen, multiple. Climate-change polar bear imagery — National Geographic catalyst.
#95
Sebastião Salgado — Workers (Serra Pelada)
Sebastião Salgado, 1986. Brazilian gold-rush ant-colony of mud-caked miners. Defining contemporary documentary photography.
#96
Genesis (Salgado)
Sebastião Salgado, 2004-2013 series. Pristine-earth landscapes and tribes. The contemporary canon of nature documentary.
#97
Beaches of the World (Massimo Vitali)
Massimo Vitali, 1990s-present. Italian large-format coastal scenes. Defines the 'banal sublime' subgenre.
#98
Robert Frank — The Americans
Robert Frank, 1958. 83 photographs from a 1955-56 road trip. The most-influential photobook ever made.
#99
Vivian Maier — Self-Portrait
Vivian Maier, 1950s-60s. Reflective self-portraits of a Chicago nanny discovered posthumously in 2007.
#100
The Pillars (#24)
(see #24)