25 Photographs That Define the Modern Era
Robert Frank used “Trolley — New Orleans” as the original cover of his influential photo book “The Americans,” first published in the United States in 1959.
I fancy myself a photographer, as opposed to someone who happens to own a camera, and I appreciate a good, captured image as much or more than any other art form. Pictures from my family's photo albums left indelible marks on me from childhood and some photos taken during my lifetime by photojournalists have become my minds illustration for the world's events. The New York Times Style Magazine assembled a group of editors to determine which 25 photos from 1955 until today are the defining images of the modern age. Some are of news events, and you've surely seen them, Tank Man in Tiananmen Square or the burning monk from Saigon during the Vietnam War. Other images in the collection were new to me, but still very powerful.
The 25 Photos That Defined the Modern Age - The New York Times (nytimes.com)