List of photographs considered the most important

This is a list of photographs considered the most important in surveys where authoritative sources review the history of the medium not limited by time period, region, genre, topic, or other specific criteria. These images may be referred to as the most important, most iconic, or most influential—and are considered key images in the history of photography.

Title	Date	Photographer	Location	Format	Notes	Cited survey(s)
View from the Window at Le Gras (French: Point de vue du Gras)	1826	Nicéphore Niépce	Saint-Loup-de-Varennes, France	Bitumen-coated pewter plate	Considered the oldest surviving camera photograph.^[1]	^{[s 1]}^{[s 2]}^{[s 3]}^{[s 4]}
Windows From Inside South Gallery^[a]	August 1835	William Henry Fox Talbot	Lacock, England, United Kingdom	Photogenic drawing negative	The earliest surviving photographic negative and the earliest surviving paper photograph.^[3]^[4]	^{[s 1]}^{[s 2]}
The Artist's Studio	1837	Louis Daguerre	Paris, France	Daguerreotype		^{[s 2]}
Boulevard du Temple	1838	Louis Daguerre	Paris, France	Daguerreotype	The earliest surviving photograph depicting people: a person working as a shoeshiner and an individual having his shoes shined.^[5]	^{[s 1]}^{[s 3]}
Self‐Portrait as a Drowned Man^[b]	18 October 1840	Hippolyte Bayard	Paris, France^[6]	Direct Positive	Possibly the earliest known staged photograph, created in protest to the French government's apparent neglect of the invention of his photographic process.^[7]^[8]	^{[s 1]}
The Haystack	1844^[c]	William Henry Fox Talbot	Lacock, England, United Kingdom^[11]	Calotype	A photograph that appeared in The Pencil of Nature, the first photographically illustrated book to be commercially published.^[12]	^{[s 1]}

Title	Date	Photographer	Location	Format	Notes	Cited survey(s)
The Mime Charles Deburau as Pierrot	1854	Nadar	Paris, France	Salt print	The photograph is part of a series taken during the 1850s.^[d]	^{[s 1]}
The Cook House of the 8th Hussars	April 1855	Roger Fenton	Crimea	Salt print		^{[s 2]}
Valley of the Shadow of Death	23 April 1855	Roger Fenton	Sevastopol, Crimea	Wet collodion negative	Fenton's pictures during the Crimean War were one of the first cases of war photography, with Valley of the Shadow of Death considered "the most eloquent metaphor of warfare" by The Oxford Companion to the Photograph.^[13]^[14]	^{[s 3]}
Sergeant Dawson and his Daughter	1855	Unknown; attributed to John Jabez Edwin Mayall^[15]	Unknown^[e]	Unknown (likely albumen print)		^{[s 1]}
The Brig^[f]	1856	Gustave Le Gray	Normandy, France	Albumen print		^{[s 1]}
Portrait of Nariakira Shimazu	17 September 1857	Shiro Ichiki	Satsuma Domain, Japan	Daguerreotype	Oldest daguerreotype by a Japanese author;^[20] first photo designated an Important Cultural Property by the government of Japan in 1999.^[21]	^{[s 1]}
Isambard Kingdom Brunel Standing Before the Launching Chains of the Great Eastern^[g]	November 1857	Robert Howlett	London, England	Glass plate	Landmark environmental portraiture and iconography of the Industrial Revolution and 19th century.	^{[s 1]}
Two Ways of Life	1857	Oscar Gustave Rejlander	Wolverhampton, England^[22]	Albumen print		^{[s 1]}
La Vallée de l'Huisne (River Scene)	1857	Camille Silvy	Nogent-le-Rotrou, France	Albumen print		^{[s 1]}
Fading Away	1858	Henry Peach Robinson	Warwickshire, England, United Kingdom^[23]	Albumen print		^{[s 1]}

Title	Date	Photographer	Location	Format	Notes	Cited survey(s)
Abraham Lincoln	27 February 1860	Mathew Brady	New York City, United States	Gelatin silver print	Taken shortly before Lincoln's Cooper Institute speech. Widely used in his campaign during the 1860 presidential election, both Brady's photo and the speech helped him become president.^[24]	^{[s 2]}^{[s 3]}^{[s 5]}
Guardian Angel, One Person Praying	c. 1860	Unknown	London, England, United Kingdom	Albumen print		^{[s 2]}
Boston, As the Eagle and the Wild Goose See It	13 October 1860	James Walice Black	Boston, Massachusetts, United States	Glass plate		^{[s 2]}
Cathedral Rock	1861	Carleton Watkins	Yosemite National Park, California, United States	Albumen print		^{[s 3]}
The Dead of Antietam^[h]	1862	Alexander Gardner	Antietam, Maryland, United States	Large-format glass plate	Showing the aftermath of the Battle of Antietam—the deadliest single day in the American Civil War	^{[s 3]}^{[s 4]}
The Scourged Back	c. 2 April 1863	McPherson & Oliver	Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States	Albumen print	One of the most widely distributed photos of the abolitionist movement.	^{[s 4]}
Cartes de Visite	May - August 1863	Andre Adolphe Disderi	Paris, France	Albumen print		^{[s 2]}
The Home of a Rebel Sharpshooter, Gettysburg	July 1863	Alexander Gardner	Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, United States	Large-format glass plate		^{[s 2]}
Sarah Bernhardt	1864	Nadar	Paris, France	Glass plate		^{[s 2]}
Wanted Poster	20 April 1865	Unknown	United States	Unknown	Broadside advertising reward for capture of Lincoln assassination conspirators, illustrated with photographic prints of John H. Surratt, John Wilkes Booth, and David E. Herold.	^{[s 2]}
Execution of the Lincoln Conspirators at Washington Arsenal	7 July 1865	Alexander Gardner	Washington, D.C., United States	Albumen print		^{[s 1]}
Portrait of Sir John Herschel	1867	Julia Margaret Cameron	Hawkhurst, England, United Kingdom	Carbon print	Herschel would later be the godfather to Cameron's firstborn.^[25]	^{[s 1]}
Call, I Follow, I Follow, Let Me Die!	1867	Julia Margaret Cameron	Hawkhurst, England, United Kingdom	Carbon print		^{[s 2]}
Close No. 193 High Street	1868	Thomas Annan	Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom	Photogravure		^{[s 2]}
East and West Shaking Hands at Laying Last Rail	10 May 1869	Andrew J. Russell	Promontory, Utah, United States	Glass plate	The ceremony for the driving of the golden spike at Promontory Summit, Utah, on May 10, 1869; completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad. Central Pacific Railroad (left), meets Union Pacific Railroad (right) and exchange bottles of water from the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.	^{[s 2]}^{[s 4]}

Title	Date	Photographer	Location	Format	Notes	Cited survey(s)
Old Faithful	1870	William Henry Jackson	Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, United States	Mammoth-format plate		^{[s 2]}
Great Falls of the Yellowstone River	1871	William Henry Jackson	Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, United States	Albumen print		^{[s 4]}
Chicago Fire	October 1871	Unknown	Chicago, Illinois, United States	Unknown		^{[s 2]}
Ancient Ruins in the Canyon de Chelly	1873	Timothy O'Sullivan	Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Arizona, United States	Albumen print		^{[s 1]}
Steinway Hall	2 December 1873	Unknown	New York City, United States	Halftone print	Steinway Hall on East 14th Street, between University Place and Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. The first halftone print of a photo used in a periodical in the United States.	^{[s 2]}
Composite Portraits of Criminal Types	1877	Francis Galton	London, England, United Kingdom	Unknown		^{[s 2]}
The Horse in Motion	June 1878	Eadweard Muybridge	Palo Alto, California, United States	Composite from multiple glass plates	Series of cabinet cards regarded as a precursor to motion pictures. Pictured left is the variant Sallie Gardner at a Gallop, which further captured a horse's motion.	^{[s 2]}^{[s 3]}^{[s 4]}

Title	Date	Photographer	Location	Format	Notes	Cited survey(s)
Street Arabs in the Area of Mulberry Street	1880	Jacob Riis	New York City, United States	Gelatin silver print		^{[s 2]}
Water Rats	1886	Frank Meadow Sutcliffe	Whitby, England, United Kingdom	Albumen print		^{[s 1]}
Bandits' Roost, 59 1/2 Mulberry Street	1888	Jacob Riis	Mulberry Bend, New York City, United States	Gelatin silver print	Part of How the Other Half Lives, an early photojournalist publication pursuing better conditions for the lower class of New York City. The photo and publication's impact was such that they contributed to the crime-ridden Bend's replacement with Columbus Park.^[26]^[27]	^{[s 3]}

List of photographs considered the most important

19th century

Before 1850

1850s

1860s

1870s

1880s

1890s

20th century

1900s

1910s

1920s

1930s

1940s

1950s

1960s

1970s

1980s

1990s

21st century

2000s

2010s

2020s

See also

Notes

Sources

Additional references

External links

Wikiwand - on

Title	Date	Photographer	Location	Format	Notes	Cited survey(s)
The Hand of Mrs. Wilhelm Röntgen	1895	Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen	Würzburg, Kingdom of Bavaria, Germany	X-ray	The first X-ray, taken by its inventor, featured his wife's hand and ring.	^{[s 2]}^{[s 3]}^{[s 4]}
Shroud of Turin negative	1898	Secondo Pia	Turin, Italy	Negative	Photographic negative of an ancient cloth relic shows details of a scourged and crucified human body	^{[s 2]}
Organ Player and Singing Girl	1898	Eugène Atget	Paris, France	Gelatin silver print		^{[s 2]}
Portrait of Emil Racoviță	1899	Louis Boutan	Banyuls-sur-Mer, France	Glass plate	First underwater portrait, and the first taken by a camera designed for underwater photography.^[28]	^{[s 4]}

Title	Date	Photographer	Location	Format	Notes	Cited survey(s)
A Sea of Steps	1903	Frederick H. Evans	Wells Cathedral, England, United Kingdom	Large Format	One of Evans's finest works in architectural photography.	^{[s 1]}
First Flight	17 December 1903	John T. Daniels	Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, United States	Glass plate	Captured flight of the first airplane, the Wright Flyer, flown by inventors Orville and Wilbur Wright.	^{[s 2]}^{[s 4]}
The Vanishing Race–Navaho	1904	Edward S. Curtis	Arizona, United States^[29]	Photogravure	Taken during the cultural assimilation of Native Americans while also popularizing the Vanishing Indian stereotype.	^{[s 1]}^{[s 3]}
The Flatiron	1904	Edward Steichen	New York City, United States	Blue-green pigment gum bichromate over platinum print	A print of this photograph became the second most expensive photograph ever sold on 9 November, 2022, when it sold for $11,840,000, at Christie's New York, well above the estimate of $2,000,000–3,000,000.	^{[s 2]}
The Pond—Moonlight	1904	Edward Steichen	Mamaroneck, New York, United States	Multiple gum bichromate print over platinum	Pictorialist hand-colored photograph; only three versions exist. In 2006, a print became the most expensive photo sold.^[30]^[31]	^{[s 3]}
An Oasis in the Badlands	1905	Edward S. Curtis	South Dakota, United States	Glass plate		^{[s 2]}
Bichonnade in Flight	1905	Jacques Henri Lartigue	Paris, France	Gelatin silver print		^{[s 2]}
San Francisco Earthquake	18 April 1906	Arnold Genthe	San Francisco, California, United States	Unknown (likely gelatin silver print)		^{[s 2]}
The Steerage	1907	Alfred Stieglitz	Aboard the SS Kaiser Wilhelm II, possibly anchored at Plymouth, England, United Kingdom^[32]	Glass plate	Landmark modernist photo depicting immigrants on the SS Kaiser Wilhelm II.^[33]	^{[s 1]}^{[s 3]}
Child Laborer in Newberry, South Carolina Cotton Mill^[i]	1908	Lewis Hine	Newberry, South Carolina, United States	Glass plate	Part of a series by the National Child Labor Committee to have child labor laws passed.	^{[s 3]}
The North Pole	6 April 1909	Robert E. Perry	Arctic Ocean			^{[s 2]}
Cactus Hot Air Balloon	1909	Léon Gimpel	Paris, France	Autochrome		^{[s 2]}^{[s 4]}

Title	Date	Photographer	Location	Format	Notes	Cited survey(s)
Breaker Boys	1911	Lewis Hine	Pittston, Pennsylvania, United States	Unknown (likely gelatin silver print)	Part of a series by the National Child Labor Committee to have child labor laws passed.	^{[s 2]}^{[s 4]}
Triangle Shirtwaist Fire	25 March 1911	Brown Brothers	New York City, United States			^{[s 2]}^{[s 4]}
The South Pole	14 December 1911	Bjorn Finstad	Antarctica			^{[s 2]}
Girl with a Mirror	1912^[35]	Clarence H. White	New York City, United States	Platinum print		^{[s 1]}
Storyville Portrait	1912	E.J. Bellocq	New Orleans, Louisiana, United States			^{[s 1]}
Une Delage au Grand Prix de l'Automobile Club de France de 1912	1912	Jacques-Henri Lartigue	Dieppe, France	Large Format	This photo depicts René Croquet [fr], with his riding mechanic.^[j]^[36]^[37]^[38]^[39]	^{[s 1]}
Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney	15 January 1913	Baron Adolphe de Meyer	New York City, United States			^{[s 2]}
Trampled by the Kings Horse	4 June 1913	Arthur Barrett	United Kingdom		Emily Davison is struck by King George's horse, Anmer, and knocked unconscious. She died four days later from a fractured skull.	^{[s 2]}
Abstraction, Porch Shadows^[k]	1916^[l]	Paul Strand	Salisbury, Connecticut, United States	Silver-platinum print		^{[s 1]}
Passport of Isadora Duncan	1916	Copied by Brad Trent	United States			^{[s 2]}
Blind Woman, New York	1916	Paul Strand	New York City, United States	Large format camera with trick lens and right-angle mirror		^{[s 3]}
Cottingley Fairies	1917	Elsie Wright	Cottingley, West Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom	Glass plate		^{[s 2]}
German Trenches Near Reims	1918	Julien Bryan	Reims, France			^{[s 2]}

Title	Date	Photographer	Location	Format	Notes	Cited survey(s)
Armco Steel	1922	Edward Weston	Middletown, Ohio, United States	Gelatin silver print		^{[s 1]}
Le Violon d'Ingres	1924	Man Ray	Paris, France	Unknown	The photograph depicts Alice Prin, known as Kiki de Montparnasse, from the back and nude to below her waist. Two f-holes are painted on her back to make her body resemble a violin.	^{[s 1]}
Movement Study	1926	Rudolf Koppitz	Vienna, Austria	Gelatin silver print on carte-postale		^{[s 1]}
Kiki with African Mask	1926	Man Ray	Paris, France	Gelatin silver print		^{[s 2]}
Charles Lindbergh, Croydon Aerodrome	29 May 1927	Pacific and Atlantic photos inc.	London, England, United Kingdom			^{[s 2]}
Monolith, the Face of Half Dome	1927	Ansel Adams	Yosemite National Park, California, United States	Glass plate		^{[s 2]}
Bricklayer	1928	August Sander	Cologne, Germany	Gelatin silver print		^{[s 3]}
The Pastry Cook	1928	August Sander	Cologne, Germany	Large format		^{[s 1]}
Woman of Tehuantapec	1929	Tina Modotti	Tehuantepec, Mexico			^{[s 1]}