Time Chooses 100 Most Influential Photographs of All Time

Time presented a project called 100 Photos, featuring the 100 most influential photographs of all time. The authors say that it took them three years to complete the list — the selection was done by photographers, curators, photo editors, and historians from all over the world.

“This project does not look at the influence of photographers within the history of the medium, but rather at how history has been influenced by specific photographs,” the Time says. “In the end, there were pictures that we had to remove from the list, because we simply could not quantify their influence.”

Among the works listed by Time are Saigon Execution by Eddie Adams, Tank Man by Jeff Widener, Starving Child by Kevin Carter, and a photographer of the three-year-old Syrian boy Alan Kurdi, who drowned last year at the Turkish shore near Bodrum, taken by Nilüfer Demir.

Every photograph is accompanied by the detailed story about how it was created and what influence it had on history. All works are available at 100 Photos website.