The Most Famous Photos in the World and the Cameras that Captured them!
When looking at old pictures, we rarely think about the photographers that took them, let alone the cameras they used. From album covers to unnerving pictures of War, get the stories behind the most famous photos in the world and see the cameras that were used to capture them.
Control your photography and be more creative with our online courses.
"Earthrise" By William Anders, 1968 / Modified Hasselblad 500 El
“Earthrise” is a photograph of Earth and some of the Moon's surface that was taken from lunar orbit by astronaut William Anders on December 24, 1968, during the Apollo 8 mission. Nature photographer Galen Rowell called it, "the most influential environmental photograph ever taken.”
The photograph was taken from lunar orbit on December 24, 1968, 16:00 UTC, with a highly modified Hasselblad 500 EL with an electric drive. The camera had a simple sighting ring rather than the standard reflex viewfinder and was loaded with a 70 mm film magazine containing custom Ektachrome film developed by Kodak. Immediately prior, Anders had been photographing the lunar surface with a 250 mm lens; the lens was subsequently used for the Earthrise images.[8] An audio recording of the event is available with transcription which allows the event to be followed closely – excerpt:
Anders: Oh my God! Look at that picture over there! There's the Earth coming up. Wow, that's pretty.
Borman: Hey, don't take that, it's not scheduled. (joking)
Anders: (laughs) You got a colour film, Jim?
Hand me that roll of colour quick, would you...
Lovell: Oh man, that's great!
©William Anders
Modified Hasselblad 500 El Camera
"D-Day" By Robert Capa, 1944 / Contax Ii
Capa came onto the shore with US soldiers on 6 June 1944 (D-Day) in an early wave of the attacks on Omaha Beach. He used two Contax II cameras mounted with 50 mm lenses and several rolls of spare film and returned to the United Kingdom within hours to meet a publication deadline for Life magazine's next issue.
According to Capa, he took 106 pictures in the first two hours of the attack. Capa returned with the unprocessed films to London, where a staff member at Life made a mistake in the darkroom; he set the dryer temperature too high and melted the emulsion in the negatives on three complete rolls and over half of a fourth roll. Only eleven frames in total were recovered. Accounts differed in blaming a fifteen-year-old lab assistant named Dennis Banks, or Larry Burrows, who would later gain fame as a photographer in his own right.
Recent research has suggested that this story is implausible because the temperatures used by such dryers would not have been hot enough to melt or set fire to film.
The surviving photos have since been called the Magnificent Eleven. The pictures have been widely celebrated and Steven Spielberg is said to have been inspired by them when filming Saving Private Ryan.
©Robert Capa
Contax Ii Camera
"Tank Man" By Jeff Widener, 1989 / Nikon FE2
Tank Man (also known as the Unknown Protester or Unknown Rebel) is the nickname of an unidentified Chinese man who stood in front of a column of tanks leaving Tiananmen Square on June 5, 1989, the day after the Chinese military had suppressed the Tiananmen Square protests. Tank Man was captured by photographer Jeff Widener on a Nikon FE2 camera.
As the lead tank passed by the man, he repeatedly shifted his position to obstruct the tank's attempted path around him. The incident was filmed and smuggled out to a worldwide audience. Internationally, it is considered one of the most iconic images of all time. Inside China, the image and the events leading up are subject to heavy state censorship.
©Jeff Widener
Nikon FE2 Camera
"Burning Monk" By Malcolm Browne, 1963 / Petri
Thích Quảng Đức was a Vietnamese Mahayana Buddhist monk who burned himself to death at a busy Saigon road on 11 June 1963. Quảng Đức was protesting the persecution of Buddhists by the South Vietnamese government. Photographs of his self-immolation were circulated widely around the world and brought attention to the policies of the Diệm government. John F. Kennedy said about a photograph of Quảng Đức on fire, "No news picture in history has generated so much emotion around the world as that one."Malcolm Browne won a Pulitzer Prize for his photograph of the monk's death.
Several Buddhist monks followed Quảng Đức's example, also immolating themselves. Eventually, a U.S. backed Army toppled President Diệm, who was killed on 2 November 1963. Photographs taken by Malcolm Browne of the self-immolation quickly spread and were featured on the front pages of newspapers worldwide. The self-immolation was later regarded as a turning point in the Buddhist crisis and a critical point in the collapse of the Diệm regime. Browne's award-winning photograph of Quảng Đức's death has been reproduced in popular media for decades, and the incident has been used as a touchstone reference in many films and television programs. This photo was shot using a Japanese-made Petri camera to take this iconic photo.
©Malcolm Browne
Petri Camera
"Afghan Girl" By Steve McCurry, 1984 / Nikon Fm2
Afghan Girl is a 1984 photographic portrait of Sharbat Gula also known as Sharbat Bibi, taken by photojournalist Steve McCurry. It appeared on the June 1985 cover of National Geographic. The image is of a teenage girl looking deeply into the camera. The identity of the photo's subject was not initially known, but in early 2002, she was identified as Sharbat Gula. She was a Pashtun child who was living in the Nasir Bagh refugee camp in Pakistan during the time of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan when she was photographed.
It has been likened to Leonardo da Vinci's painting of the Mona Lisa and has been called "the First World's Third World Mona Lisa". The image became "symbolic" of "refugee girl/woman located in some distant camp".
Steve McCurry, on Kodachrome 64 colour slide film, with a Nikon FM2 camera and Nikkor 105mm Ai-S F2.5 lens.
©Steve McCurry
Nikon Fm2 Camera
Lyle Owerko, 2001 / Fuji 645zi
Filmmaker and photographer Lyle Owerko whose work ranged from Sundance Channel to Time to MTV captured the terrible events of 9/11 in 2001 using a Fuji 645zi camera. Owerko exclaims. “There was kind of a beauty to working back then,” he says. “You were preconceiving your shots. And being judicious about what you shot and even being conservative.” Owerko quickly and carefully moved around the streets to find the best perspective. “There was a lull for a few minutes,” he remembers. “The reason I went to Vesey and Church streets was that it put the sun at my back and I was able to compose a story of the two towers – one that was obfuscated and one with no marring on it and at that point I thought: ‘There’s your cover.’ The one tower that’s smoking and the one that’s stoic and defiant.” The photo made it on the cover of TIME magazine.
Today, Lyle Owerko feels the photo is not his anymore. "It’s the world's photo," he says. "It belongs to history.”
©Lyle Owerko
Fuji 645zi Camera
"The Hindenburg Disaster" By Sam Shere, 1937 / Speed Graphic
The Hindenburg disaster occurred on May 6, 1937, in Manchester Township, New Jersey, United States. The German passenger airship LZ 129 Hindenburg caught fire and was destroyed during its attempt to dock with its mooring mast at Naval Air Station Lakehurst. There were 35 fatalities (13 passengers and 22 crewmen) from the 97 people on board (36 passengers and 61 crewmen) and an additional fatality on the ground.
©Sam Shere
Speed Graphic Camera
"Fire Escape Collapse" By Stanley Forman, 1975 / Nikon F
Fire Escape Collapse, also known as Fire on Marlborough Street, is a monochrome photograph by Stanley Forman which received the Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography in 1976 and the title of World Press Photo of the Year.
The photograph, which is part of a series, shows Bryant and Jones waiting for a turntable ladder and the moment of the fire escape's collapse with both victims on it on Marlborough Street in Boston on July 22, 1975, by photographer Stanley Forman using a Nikon F camera.
The first fire engine to arrive at the scene, Robert O'Neill, asked 19-year-old Bryant to lift her two-year-old goddaughter Jones to him on the roof, but Bryant was unable to do so. O'Neill had one arm around Bryant and one hand on a rung of the ladder when the fire escape collapsed. O'Neil managed to hang by one hand and was rescued, but Bryant and Jones fell approximately 50 feet (15 meters). Bryant sustained multiple head and body injuries and died hours later. Jones survived the fall as she had landed on Bryant, softening the impact.
This photograph and others from the incident were originally published in the Boston Herald. Forman made a set of prints for the Associated Press, which distributed the photo to 128 U.S. newspapers and those in several foreign countries.
Within twenty-four hours, action was taken in Boston to improve the safety of all fire escapes in the city. Fire safety groups used the photos to promote similar efforts in other U.S. cities.
©Stanley Forman
Nikon F Camera
"Migrant Mother" By Dorothea Lange, 1936 / Graflex Super D
"Migrant Mother" by Dorothea Lange. In 1936. Illustrates a Portrait of Florence Thompson with several of her children. The Library of Congress caption reads: "Destitute pea pickers in California. Mother of seven children. Age thirty-two. Nipomo, California."
In the 1930s, the FSA employed several photographers to document the effects of the Great Depression in America. Many of the photographs can also be seen as propaganda images to aid the U.S. government's policy. Distributing support to the worst affected, poorer areas of the country. Dorothea Lange's image of a supposed migrant pea picker, Florence Owens Thompson, and her family has become an icon of resilience in the face of adversity.
However, it is not universally accepted that Florence Thompson was a migrant pea picker. Author Richard Steven Street declares that some researchers suspect Lange's description of the print was "either vague or demonstrably inaccurate" and that Thompson was not a farmworker, but a Dust Bowl migrant. The child to the viewer's right was Florence Thompson's daughter, Katherine (later Katherine McIntosh), 4 years old (Leonard, Tom) Dorothea Lange took this photograph with a Graflex Super D camera.
©Dorothea Lange
Graflex Super D Camera
"The Terror of War" By Nick Ut, 1972 / Leica M3
Huỳnh Công Út, known as Nick Ut is a Vietnamese American photographer for the Associated Press who works out of Los Angeles. He won both the 1973 Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography and the 1973 World Press Photo of the Year for "The Terror of War", portraying children running from a napalm bombing during the Vietnam War. His best-known photo on June 8, 1972, features a naked 9-year-old girl, Phan Thị Kim Phúc, running toward the camera from a South Vietnamese napalm strike that mistakenly hit Trảng Bàng village instead of nearby North Vietnamese troops.
Before presenting his film with the Kim Phúc photo, he took her to the hospital. The publication of the photo was delayed due to the AP department's debate about transmitting a naked girl's photo:
“... an editor at the AP rejected the photo of Kim Phuc running down the road without clothing because it showed frontal nudity. Pictures of nudes of all ages and sexes and especially frontal views were an absolute no-no at the Associated Press in 1972 ... Horst argued by telex with the New York head-office that an exception must be made, with the compromise that no close-up of the girl Kim Phuc alone would be transmitted. The New York photo editor, Hal Buell, agreed that the news value of the photograph overrode any reservations about nudity.”
©Nick Ut
Leica M3 Camera
"Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima" By Joe Rosenthal, 1945 / Speed Graphic
Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima is an iconic photograph of six United States Marines raising the U.S. throughout the Battle of Iwo Jima in the final stages of the Pacific War. The photograph, taken by Joe Rosenthal on February 23, 1945, was first distributed in Sunday newspapers two days later and reprinted in thousands of magazines.
It was the only photograph to win the Pulitzer Prize for Photography in the same year as its publication. The photograph has come to be considered in the United States as one of the most significant and recognizable images of World War II.
The flag-raising appeared in the early afternoon after the mountaintop was captured and a smaller flag was raised on top that morning. Three of the six Marines in the photograph—Sergeant Michael Strank, Corporal Harlon Block, and Private First-Class Franklin Sousley—were killed in action during the battle. All the men served in the 5th Marine Division on Iwo Jima.
Following the flag-raising, Joe Rosenthal sent his film to be developed and printed. Upon seeing it, Associated Press photograph editor John Bodkin exclaimed "Here's one for all time!" and instantly transferred the image to the AP headquarters in New York City. The photograph was quickly picked up off the wire by hundreds of newspapers. It "was distributed by Associated Press within seventeen and one-half hours after Rosenthal shot it—an astonishingly fast turnaround time in those days.”
©Joe Rosenthal
Speed Graphic Camera
"Invasion 68: Prague", By Josef Koudelka, 1968 / Exacta Varex
In 1968, Josef Koudelka was a 30-year-old photographer. Koudelka's early work substantially influenced his later photography and its importance on social and cultural as well as death. He soon moved on to a more personal, in-depth photographic study of the Gypsies of Slovakia, and later Romania. This work was exhibited in Prague in 1967. He had never made pictures of a news event. That all changed on the night of August 21, when Warsaw Pact tanks invaded the city of Prague, ending the short-lived political liberalization in Czechoslovakia that came to be known as Prague Spring.
During the turmoil of the Soviet-led invasion, he took a series of photographs which were miraculously smuggled out of the country. A year after they reached New York, Magnum Photos distributed the images credited to "an unknown Czech photographer" to avoid punishments.
The significance of the images earned the still-anonymous photographer the Robert Capa Award. Sixteen years would pass before Koudelka could safely acknowledge authorship.
"I knew it was important to photograph, so I photographed" - Josef Koudelka
©Josef Koudelka
Exacta Varex Camera
"V-J Day In Times Square" By Alfred Eisenstaedt, 1945 / Leica Iiia
V-J Day in Times Square is a photograph by Alfred Eisenstaedt that describes a U.S. Navy sailor embracing and kissing a stranger—a dental assistant—on Victory over Japan Day in New York City's Times Square on August 14, 1945. The photograph was distributed a week later in Life magazine.
Alfred Eisenstaedt was photographing an unplanned event that happened in Times Square soon before the declaration of the end of the war with Japan was made by the U.S.
The photograph was shot south of 45th Street looking north from where Broadway and Seventh Avenue join, taken with a Leica IIIa camera.
©Alfred Eisenstaedt
Leica Iiia Camera
Abbey Road Album Cover By Iain Macmillan, 1969 / Hasselblad
Iain Stewart Macmillan was the Scottish photographer famous for taking the cover photo for The Beatles' album Abbey Road in 1969. He grew up in Scotland, then moved to London to become a professional photographer.
He used a photo of Yoko Ono in a book that he published in 1966, and Ono invited him to photograph her exhibit at Indica Gallery. She introduced him to John Lennon, and Lennon invited him to photograph the cover for Abbey Road. He worked with Lennon and Ono for several years, even staying for a while at their home in New York. The Beatles recorded most of their music at the EMI Studios on Abbey Road, London. They decided to name their last album after the road.
Iain Macmillan took the famous Abbey Road photo using a Hasselblad camera with a 50mm wide-angle lens, aperture f22, at 1/500 seconds.
"The Soiling of Old Glory" By Stanley Forman, 1976 / Nikon F
The Soiling of Old Glory is a Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph taken by Stanley Forman during the Boston busing crisis in 1976. It depicts a white teenager, Joseph Rakes, assaulting a black man—lawyer and civil rights activist Ted Landsmark—with a flagpole bearing the American flag.
The image was taken for the Boston Herald American in Boston, Massachusetts on April 5, 1976, during one in a series of protests against court-ordered desegregation busing. It ran on the front page of the Herald American the next day and appeared in several newspapers across the country. It won the 1977 Pulitzer Prize for Spot Photography.
©Iain Macmillan
Hasselblad Camera
"The Soiling of Old Glory" By Stanley Forman, 1976 / Nikon F
The Soiling of Old Glory is a Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph taken by Stanley Forman during the Boston busing crisis in 1976. It depicts a white teenager, Joseph Rakes, assaulting a black man—lawyer and civil rights activist Ted Landsmark—with a flagpole bearing the American flag.
The image was taken for the Boston Herald American in Boston, Massachusetts on April 5, 1976, during one in a series of protests against court-ordered desegregation busing. It ran on the front page of the Herald American the next day and appeared in several newspapers across the country. It won the 1977 Pulitzer Prize for Spot Photography.
©Stanley Forman
Nikon F Camera
"Raising A Flag Over the Reichstag" By Yevgeny Khaldei, 1945 / Leica Iii
Raising a Flag over the Reichstag is an iconic World War II photograph, taken during the Battle of Berlin on 2 May 1945. The photograph was reprinted in thousands of magazines and came to be considered as one of the most significant and recognizable images of World War II. Owing to the secrecy of Soviet media, the identities of the men in the picture were often disputed, as was that of the photographer, Yevgeny Khaldei, who was identified only after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
The Reichstag was symbolic of, and at the heart of, Nazi Germany. The events surrounding the flag-raising are murky due to the confusion of the fight at the building. As this happened at night, it was too dark to take a photograph.[4] The next day the flag was taken down by the Germans. The Red Army finally gained control of the entire building on 2 May. The photograph was taken with a Leica III rangefinder camera with a 35mm f3.5 lens.
©Yevgeny Khaldei
Leica Iii Camera
Paul Goresh / Minolta Xg-1
On the 8th December 1980, English musician John Lennon, previously one of the Beatles, was shot in the archway of his home in New York City. The perpetrator was Mark David Chapman, an American Beatles fan who had travelled from Hawaii. Chapman stated that he was annoyed by Lennon's lifestyle, in particular, his much-publicized remark about the Beatles being "more popular than Jesus" and the lyrics of his later songs "God" and "Imagine".
Chapman planned the killing over several months. Chapman fired five bullets, four of which hit Lennon in the back. Chapman stayed at the scene until he was arrested by the police. John Lennon was rushed in a police cruiser to Roosevelt Hospital, where he was declared dead.
Crowds gathered at Roosevelt Hospital and in front of the Dakota. At least three Beatles fans committed suicide. Lennon was cremated in Hartsdale, New York, on 12 December
©Paul Goresh
Minolta Xg-1 Camera
"Guerillero Heroico" By Alberto Korda, 1969 / Leica M2
Guerrillero Heroico is an iconic photograph taken by Alberto Korda. It was captured on March 5, 1960, in Havana, Cuba, at a memorial service for victims of the La Coubre explosion.
Alberto Korda has said that when he shot the picture, he was drawn to Guevara's facial expression, which revealed "absolute implacability” as well as anger and pain. Guevara was 31 years old at the time the photograph was taken.
As a lifelong communist and supporter of the Cuban Revolution until his death, Alberto Korda claimed no payment for his picture.
However, Alberto Korda did not want commercialisation of the image in relation to products. This belief was displayed for the first time in 2000 when in response to Smirnoff using Che's picture in a vodka commercial, Alberto Korda claimed his moral rights (a form of copyright law) and sued advertising agency. The result was an out of court settlement for US$50,000 to Alberto Korda, which he donated to the Cuban healthcare system, stating "if Che was still alive, he would have done the same."
©Alberto Korda
Leica M2 Camera
"Tokyo Stabbing" By Yasushi Nagao, 1960 / Speed Graphic
On October 12, 1960, Asanuma was assassinated by 17-year-old Otoya Yamaguchi, a nationalist, during a televised political debate for the House of Representatives. While Asanuma spoke from the lectern at Tokyo's Hibiya Hall, Yamaguchi rushed onstage and ran his yoroi-dōshi through Asanuma's ribs on the left side, killing him. Japanese television company NHK was video recording the debate for later transmission and the tape of Asanuma's assassination was shown many times to millions of viewers.
The photograph of Asanuma's assassination won its photographer Yasushi Nagao both the Pulitzer Prize and World Press Photo of the Year.
Yamaguchi was captured at the scene of the crime, and a few weeks afterwards committed suicide by hanging while in police custody.
©Yasushi Nagao
Speed Graphic Camera
"The Shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald" By Robert Jackson, 1963 / Nikon S3
Robert Jackson is an American photographer. In 1964, Jackson was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Photography for his photograph of the murder of Lee Harvey. Lee Harvey Oswald was an American Marxist and former U.S. Marine who assassinated United States President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. Two days later, Oswald was shot by local nightclub owner Jack Ruby on live television in the basement of Dallas Police Headquarters.
©Robert Jackson
Nikon S3 Camera
Image and text sources: www.wikipedia.org
Get access to ALL our online courses - 1000’s of videos, worksheets, critiques of students work, personalised support and much more with our monthly membership.
I hope you liked this blog, please leave us a comment and support us by sharing it with your friends and subscribe to our newsletter at the bottom of this page for more.
We also have an excellent learning community on social media so please join us there as well.
Thanks for watching and remember – Learn more at The School of Photography.