We live in an age where millions of photographs are taken every minute. More people than ever have access to quality cameras and have them in their pockets at every moment, ready to shoot. People are quitting their jobs to become full-time photographers after being discovered on Instagram, Apple produced an influential advertising campaign, which exclusively featured images “Shot on iPhone,” while social media platforms like Snapchat are evidence of a an ever-growing, collective desire to capture daily life events and our every meal.
With so many images produced every single day, how do we filter through the mix of photo-journalism, stock shots and shameless selfies? What makes a great photograph?
TIME recently undertook this question as a challenge, and they produced something noteworthy. If the saying is correct, then their new release of The [100] Most Influential Images of All Time is worth 100,000 words. This ambitious task was undertaken by staff and consultants including curators, historians and photo editors around the world.
The verdict: there is no formula that makes a picture influential. "Some images are on our list because they were the first of their kind, others because they shaped the way we think. And some made the cut because they directly changed the way we live. What all 100 share is that they are turning points in our human experience.”
Photography is about storytelling. TIME concluded that the constant in all photography is that the photographer takes a unique perspective – his or her own. "The best photography is a form of bearing witness, a way of bringing a single vision to the larger world.”
Are there any iconic images that you think should have made the list?