Moviegoers in 3D Glasses (1952)

Photographer J.R. Eyerman’s famous shot, taken in 1952 at the Paramount Theater in Hollywood, California, captures a pivotal moment in cinema history. The image shows a sea of moviegoers, all wearing 3D glasses, transfixed by the screen while watching Bwana Devil, the first full-length color movie in 3D. (The movie’s tagline boldly promised “A lion in your lap! A lover in your arms!”) Eyerman’s photo encapsulated the excitement and novelty of 3D technology in the 1950s, while also presenting a visually impactful image in its own right, with the striking uniformity of the smartly dressed, 3D-glasses-wearing audience. It has since become one of the most recognizable images of 1950s popular culture. 

“Camelot” (1953)

In 1953, Hy Peskin, an American photographer known for several famous photographs published by Sports Illustrated and LIFE, was invited to take photographs at the home of the Kennedys. Specifically, he was to capture the then-rookie Senator John F. Kennedy and his fiancee, Jacqueline Lee Bouvier. The resulting images offered a casual yet vibrant portrayal of the young couple, in stark contrast to the typically stuffy and polished political photos of the time. One photo, which shows Kennedy and Bouvier on their boat, the Victura, became the first of 20 images of JFK to feature on the cover of LIFE. Now known as “Camelot,” the image fostered public fascination with the young couple, helping pave the way for Kennedy’s presidential victory. 

Tenzing Norgay on the Summit of Mount Everest (1953)

On May 29, 1953, mountaineers Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary gazed out over Tibet from the highest point on the planet. They had just become the first people to reach the summit of Mount Everest, and soon the whole world would hear of their achievement. Many photos were taken during the expedition, but arguably the most famous is that of Norgay, a Nepalese Indian Sherpa, standing atop the highest peak in the world, his ice ax raised triumphantly in the freezing air. Hillary, an explorer from New Zealand, took the photo with a fairly basic Kodak Retina compact camera. There is, however, no comparative image of Hillary standing at the summit — the New Zealander apparently refused a photograph when Norgay offered to return the favor.

Marilyn Monroe in a White Dress (1954)

Marilyn Monroe was a defining figure of the 1950s, representing both the ideal of feminine beauty and changing attitudes toward sexuality. Countless photos were taken of the archetypal “blonde bombshell,” but none is more iconic than Sam Shaw’s photo of Monroe standing over a subway grate as her white dress billows up around her. Shaw, who was a close friend of Monroe’s, took the photo during the filming of The Seven Year Itch. Despite pushing the boundaries of what was acceptable in the conservative 1950s, the image became a near-instant classic in a decade when celebrity worship was reaching new heights. 

Elizabeth Eckford and “The Scream” (1957)

In 1957, photojournalist Will Counts captured one of the most recognizable images of America’s Civil Rights Movement. The photo shows 15-year-old African American student Elizabeth Eckford walking alone as she is harassed by angry white protesters during the height of the Central High School desegregation crisis in Little Rock, Arkansas. Eckford appears calm and dignified despite the hostility surrounding her. The image captured one woman in particular in midshout, her face contorted with rage — hence the photo sometimes being known as “The Scream.” 

Joshua Reynolds

While not as well remembered as Michelangelo, painter Joshua Reynolds was a big deal in 18th-century England. Reynolds is best known for launching the “Grand Manner” portraiture movement, which placed subjects in classical poses amid idealized depictions of nature, even if many of his works aged poorly due to his experiments with colors. Thanks to his personal connections, the artist received the opportunity to paint many of his era’s celebrities (including King George III) and establish his own standing in high-society circles. 

A founding member of the Royal Academy of Arts, Reynolds became its inaugural president in 1768, and was knighted the following year. Around that time he delivered the first of 15 lectures to Royal Academy students, later published for posterity as Discourses. Upon his death in 1792, Reynolds’ body was brought to London’s St. Paul’s Cathedral in a procession that included 91 carriages filled with his famous friends, trailed by the members of the Royal Academy’s faculty and student body.

Georgia O’Keeffe

Overcoming the stifling limitations of her traditional training, Georgia O’Keeffe forged her own path to emerge as the “mother of American modernism” in the years following World War I. This was partly due to the connections and promotional abilities of her husband, New York gallery owner Alfred Stieglitz, but mainly due to the accessibility of her work. Unlike, say, French modernist Marcel Duchamp, who aimed to provoke by exhibiting a urinal in a gallery, O’Keeffe’s abstractions were far more pleasing to the eye and mind. 

Drawing inspiration from her immediate surroundings, be it the petals featured in “Petunia No. 2” (1924), the skyscraper of “Radiator Building - Night, New York” (1927), or the horned subject of “Cow's Skull: Red, White and Blue” (1931), O’Keeffe found an audience willing to shell out premium prices for her oil paintings by the 1920s. The first woman to earn a retrospective from the Museum of Modern Art in 1946, she was recognized as a national treasure toward the end of her life, receiving the Medal of Freedom from President Gerald Ford in 1977 and the Medal of Arts from President Ronald Reagan in 1985.

Salvador Dalí

Instantly recognizable with his pointed mustache and wide-eyed countenance, Spain’s Salvador Dalí wielded a celebrity that transcended his formidable skills with a paintbrush. Following his early dabbles with cubism and impressionism, Dalí became a leader of the burgeoning surrealist movement by way of such compellingly bizarre paintings as “The Persistence of Memory” (1931) and “The Enigma of William Tell” (1933). 

While he was soon excommunicated from the surrealists, the combination of his instinct for public theatrics and the acute business sense of his wife and muse, Gala, ensured his survival as a one-man brand. Dalí spent much of the 1940s in the United States, where he channeled his creativity toward projects in feature films, jewelry, and theater set design, before returning to Spain at the end of the decade to focus on religious imagery in his paintings. While his later years were not happy ones, Dalí had earned enough money to buy a castle for his beloved Gala, as well as the creative freedom to launch a museum dedicated to his works in his hometown of Figueres.

Andy Warhol

Had he continued on his early career path as a commercial illustrator, Andy Warhol likely would have retired a financially secure if mostly unknown individual. Instead, he became the face of the pop art movement by way of photo-based paintings such as “Campbell’s Soup Cans” (1962) and “Triple Elvis” (1963), while his Manhattan studio, aka “The Factory,” emerged as the center of the bohemian New York City art scene. Although he ostensibly “retired” from painting in the mid-’60s to focus on filmmaking and other endeavors, that decision proved short-lived; Warhol supported himself by undertaking commissioned portraits through the 1970s, and he later enjoyed a revival via collaborations with younger talents such as Jean-Michel Basquiat. His fame and fortune intact upon his death in 1987, Warhol demonstrated to successive generations of artists that it was OK to fulfill one’s creative ambitions while simultaneously seeking pursuit of the almighty dollar.

The Breaker Boys Photo, 1911 

In 1908, the U.S. National Child Labor Committee hired sociologist and photographer Lewis Hine to photograph children at work in mills, mines, and factories. His photos of the “breaker boys” — children usually between the ages of 8 and 12 who worked in coal mines — helped build public support for legislation barring child labor. 

“Le Violon d'Ingres,” 1924

“Le Violon d'Ingres” is a black-and-white photograph created by the American visual artist Man Ray. It features the model Kiki de Montparnasse, with two f-holes painted on her back to make her body resemble a violin. One of the most iconic images of the surrealist movement, it set a record in 2022 when it sold for $12.4 million, becoming the most expensive photo of all time. 

“Lunch Atop a Skyscraper,” 1932

The 1930s were a decade of many iconic photos, from the Hindenburg zeppelin bursting into flames to a classic photo purporting to show the Loch Ness monster. Arguably the most famous, however, was a black-and-white portrait of 11 ironworkers eating lunch while sitting precariously on a steel beam 850 feet in the air, taken during the construction of Rockefeller Center in New York City. 

“Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima,” 1945

World War II heralded a new era of war photography, much of it more intimate and at times more harrowing than anything previously seen. One of the most recognizable images was taken by Joe Rosenthal of the Associated Press on February 23, 1945. It shows six United States Marines raising the American flag atop Mount Suribachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima. Three of the Marines were killed in action during the battle, but their image remains a timeless portrayal of troops at war. 

“The Scream Image,” 1957 

In 1957, photographer Will Counts took a series of photos during the Central High School desegregation crisis in Little Rock, Arkansas. One of his photos, sometimes known as “The Scream Image,” shows Black student Elizabeth Eckford being harassed by white students in front of the school. Instantly iconic, the image became a key symbol of the Civil Rights Movement. 

“Earthrise,” 1968

On Christmas Eve in 1968, the crew of Apollo 8 saw a spectacular sight as they orbited the moon: the Earth appearing above the lunar horizon. Astronaut Bill Anders took a photo, which became known as “Earthrise.” Not only was it the first color photograph of Earth taken from space, but it also inspired a generation to think more seriously about our planet. The image is now widely credited with advancing the global environmental movement. 

Nixon Gives the “V” Sign, 1974

The 1970s were characterized by political upheaval on a global scale, with frequent coups, domestic conflicts, and civil wars. In the U.S., the decade was marked by the Vietnam War, President Richard Nixon’s term, and the Watergate scandal. This iconic image shows Nixon waving goodbye from the steps of his helicopter as he leaves the White House after his farewell address on August 9, 1974. 

“Tank Man,” 1989

From a sixth-floor balcony of the Beijing Hotel, Jeff Widener of the Associated Press took one of the most recognizable photos of all time. Below him, in Tiananmen Square, a lone man bravely stood in front of a column of tanks, repeatedly changing his position in order to obstruct their attempted advance. Widener’s photo is a classic image of resistance, though the lone protester has never been identified. 

“Pillars of Creation,” 1995

Photography is literally light-years ahead of where it was when Joseph Nicéphore Niépce took the first photo in history from his upstairs window. “The Pillars of Creation” — arguably the Hubble Space Telescope’s most iconic image — shows a section of the Eagle Nebula star cluster located some 7,000 light-years from Earth. It features three huge, fingerlike columns formed of interstellar gas and dust, where the process of creating new stars takes place, all captured in a truly awe-inspiring photograph. 

“Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima” (1945)

Joe Rosenthal was a photographer for the Associated Press during World War II whose legacy was defined by the Pulitzer Prize-winning photo “Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima.” Rosenthal captured the iconic event on February 23, 1945, on the small Japanese island of Iwo Jima, roughly 750 miles south of Tokyo in the Pacific Ocean. The picture depicts six men triumphantly raising an American flag, and commemorates an important military victory — though there’s a good deal more to the story. 

The island of Iwo Jima was a strategic stronghold occupied by the Japanese. On February 19, three U.S. Marine divisions landed on Iwo Jima and began a harrowing multiday battle with Japanese forces. On February 23, Americans took control of Mount Suribachi, a geographic landmark on the southern end of the island. In celebration of their conquest, troops raised up an American flag, though not the flag seen in the famous image. It was actually a smaller flag, captured by Sergeant Louis R. Lowery in a lesser-known photograph.

Hours later, troops were ordered to replace the first flag with a larger American flag that could be seen more easily from a far distance. This caught the attention of Rosenthal, who heard the plan from a nearby radioman. Rosenthal brought his camera to the mountain, where he photographed six men (five Marines and one Navy Corpsman) raising the larger flag in what has since become an iconic image. Tragically, it took another month for American forces to take the entire island of Iwo Jima, during which three of those men were killed: Sergeant Michael Strank, Corporal Harlon Block, and Private First Class Franklin Sousley. The three others who survived the battle, and the war, were Corporals Harold Keller, Harold Schultz, and 22-year-old Ira Hayes, a soldier of Pima Indian descent who went on to meet President Harry Truman at the White House.

“Guerrillero Heroico” (1960)

The photograph “Guerrillero Heroico” (“Heroic Guerrilla Fighter”) depicts Argentine revolutionary Che Guevara, whose likeness has grown into a symbol used by counterculture groups around the world. The original image was taken by photographer Alberto Korda on March 5, 1960, depicting Guevara gazing stoically off into the distance. While the image may seem posed, it was actually captured by a stroke of luck in a mere matter of seconds.

Guevara became a popular figure throughout Cuba during the 1950s, playing a pivotal role in overthrowing the government alongside Fidel Castro. Shortly after the rebels rose to power, a ship named La Coubre exploded in Havana Harbor on March 4, 1960, killing as many as 100 local workers who were unloading ammunition. Guevara, Castro, and others attended the state funeral the next day, as did Korda, who was working for the Revolución newspaper at the time. While standing by the podium with his eyes focused on Castro, the photographer noticed that Guevara had emerged directly above him. He quickly grabbed his Leica camera and snapped two photos in rapid succession, before Guevara stepped back. He returned home to develop the photos, and cropped the original to remove another man off to the side as well as the fronds of a palm tree.

Korda described Guevara’s look in the photo as having “impressive force in his expression, given the anger concentrated in his gaze after so many deaths.” Oddly, the paper passed on publishing the photo until one year later, using it in an advertisement for an upcoming lecture delivered by the revolutionary. The image didn’t become popular until 1967, the year of Guevara’s execution. At the memorial service, a giant print of the photo was hung up by the Ministry of the Interior. A stylized version of the portrait was later used during the 1968 Paris student riots, and it became a popular symbol co-opted by various groups around the world. The image eventually took on a life of its own, and people began to lose sight of its original meaning, especially after the photo was used by major corporations such as Nike and Taco Bell in various ad campaigns.

Elvis Meets Nixon (1970)

In the year 1970, two of the most recognizable men in the world met face to face for the first time: Elvis Presley and Richard Nixon. The unlikely meeting took place on December 21, 1970, within the Oval Office, resulting in a now-legendary photo of the pair shaking hands. This image and others were taken by Nixon’s personal photographer, Oliver F. Atkins, who chronicled the impromptu and secret encounter that day.

While on a red-eye flight earlier that morning, Presley wrote a lengthy letter to President Nixon on American Airlines stationary. The rock star shared his concerns about the growing drug culture in America, and expressed an interest in becoming a “Federal Agent at Large” so he could help tackle the issue. He ended the letter by saying that he hoped to meet Nixon and “say hello if you’re not too busy.” Upon landing, he asked his limo driver to head straight to the White House, where he handed the letter to security agents at the gate. Initially, Nixon’s staffers assumed that it was just a prank. But after learning that it was indeed Elvis himself who wished to meet the President, they quickly organized an official, impromptu meeting to take place later that day.

At 11:45 a.m., “the King of Rock ’n’ Roll” returned to the White House wearing a purple velvet suit, caped cloak, gilded belt buckle, and amber-tinted sunglasses. He was immediately brought into the Oval Office, where Nixon was waiting, and thus began a 35-minute meeting where the duo discussed communism, the Beatles, Las Vegas, and even Presley’s family photos. While there, the musician requested an official badge from the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs in hopes of legitimizing his personal crusade against drug culture. Nixon obliged, and Presley was so overwhelmed with joy that he went in for a hug before the Secret Service could stop him. The pair agreed that the meeting should be kept a secret, as neither side was sure how their supporters would react. It wasn’t until January 1972 that word of this strange event finally broke, though nothing practical ever really came of it.

“Tank Man” (1989)

Associated Press photographer Jeff Widener spent the spring of 1989 in Beijing, China, covering the Tiananmen Square protests. On June 5, he captured an image that’s considered one of the most powerful acts of defiance in the face of authoritarian rule. His photo, titled “Tank Man,” shows an anonymous man in black pants and a white shirt standing in front of a line of tanks, refusing to let them continue patrolling the square.

The story behind the photograph begins months earlier, on April 15, after the death of Hu Yaobang, the former general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party who had been forced to resign two years earlier. Hu had attempted to push the country toward democratization, an effort that resonated with many Chinese youth. However, the larger government was far less open to such reforms. After Hu’s death, around 100,000 students descended on Beijing’s Tiananmen Square to continue pushing for his reforms and to protest the corrupt Chinese Communist Party that remained in power. A rally on May 19 drew 1.2 million people to the square, though it was only a matter of time before the government cracked down on the protests. This led to a horrible massacre on June 4, when military forces opened fire on demonstrators and killed hundreds of people, or possibly thousands. By the following day, the military had taken control of the square, and tanks and troops patrolled the streets once more.

On June 5, an anonymous lone man stepped into the middle of Chang’an Avenue on the edge of Tiananmen Square while a line of tanks approached him. The striking scene caught the eye of reporters and photographers who were staying at the nearby Beijing Hotel, and many turned their cameras toward the event from the balcony. Widener captured the most recognizable single image of the scene, which shows the man standing in front of four tanks, preventing their forward progress. Other, more zoomed-out photos show the true enormity of the situation, as there were dozens more tanks all in a line heading directly toward this single protester. After halting the parade of tanks, the man climbed on top of one, spoke to someone inside, and then climbed back down to prevent the tanks from continuing on. After several tense moments, two mysterious men emerged and dragged the protester away. Today, nobody truly knows the identity of “Tank Man” or what happened to him. Some say he was arrested and executed, while others claim he simply vanished off the grid — though certainly not from memory, thanks to Widener’s famous photograph. 

Vincent Van Gogh Painted “The Starry Night” in a Hospital 

One of history’s most famous modern art pieces was created in an unlikely place. Dutch post-impressionist painter Vincent Van Gogh struggled with his mental and physical health for most of his life. In 1889, he admitted himself to Saint-Paul-de-Mausole, a hospital located near the town of Saint-Rémy in southern France. At the hospital, Van Gogh received two rooms, one bedroom and one spare room that he transformed into a private studio, which he used to create around 150 paintings during his 12-month stay. Among them was “The Starry Night”;the scenery in the artwork is reminiscent of southern France, with rolling hills and cypress trees. The brightest star, located near the center, is Venus. Today, “The Starry Night” hangs in New York City’s Museum of Modern Art. 

Salvador Dalí Collaborated on a Film With Walt Disney

Salvador Dalí is a Spanish artist known for his surrealist artwork, such as the melting clocks in his 1931 painting “The Persistence of Memory.” What is less well known is that the artist once collaborated on a surrealist animated film with Walt Disney, though the film was not completed in his lifetime. Disney approached Dalí about the project after getting the idea from a Mexican folk song called “Destino.” The plan was for Dalí to handle the animations while Disney worked his magic on the rest. The film was three months into production in 1945 when Disney decided to pull the plug, anticipating a low return on investment due to the financial strain of World War II. All that remains of the original work is a short demo reel and some initial sketches. Many years later, the project was revived by Disney’s nephew, Roy E. Disney, and a team of animators who finished where Dalí left off. The six-minute short, titled “Destino,” was released in 2003.

Henri Matisse Began Painting After an Appendicitis Attack 

In 1889, Henri Matisse was working as a law office clerk in Saint-Quentin, France. He showed little interest in art at the time, but he would soon become one of the most prominent painters in 20th-century France. Matisse’s life changed in 1890 as he was recovering from a severe appendicitis attack. Isolated and bored, he welcomed the art supplies his mother gave him to keep him occupied. Matisse quickly took to painting, and within one year, he decided to quit his job at the law office and move to Paris to pursue art full time. He became a leader of the fauvist movement, a style characterized by bold colors and textured brushwork, as seen in his painting “Green Stripe,” created in 1905.

Georgia O’Keeffe Was the First Female Artist Exhibited at MoMA

New York City’s Museum of Modern Art, or MoMA, is one of the most influential modern art museums in the world. MoMA debuted its first-ever female solo exhibition in the spring of 1946, featuring Georgia O’Keeffe, known as the “mother of American modernism.” She is famous for large-format paintings of natural subjects, especially flowers, many of which were highlighted in the exhibit. One, “Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1,” sold at a 2014 Sotheby’s auction decades later for $44.4 million, setting the record for the most expensive painting by a woman artist. Also featured in the 1946 MoMA exhibit were landscape portraits from New Mexico, where O’Keeffe visited often and lived when she retired.

The Term “Impressionism” Comes From a Monet Painting

Having an entire art movement named after one of your paintings is quite a feat, and one that French painter Claude Monet can claim. His 1872 work “Impression, Sunrise” (depicting a port scene in Le Havre, France) inspired critic Louis Leroy to coin the term. Leroy called the piece “impressionist” because he thought the artwork looked more like an incomplete sketch than a finished painting. However, notable impressionists such as Monet, Paul Cézanne, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir proved that their style — characterized by thin brush strokes, unblended colors, and an emphasis on lighting — was anything but incomplete. The movement officially began in 1874 after a group of artists known as the Anonymous Society of Painters, Sculptors, Printmakers, etc. met in Paris to launch a new exhibition; Monet was among the founding members. Impressionism became one of the most popular modern art movements, spanning two decades in the 1870s and 1880s. 

1720s to 1760s: Rococo 

The rococo style took the ornateness of Baroque art to a whole new — and some would say excessive — level. Emerging in France in the 1720s, it was characterized by gaiety, curvaceousness, and sensuality, in stark contrast to the more serious classical style, which heavily references classical antiquity, specifically ancient Greek and Roman art. It certainly wasn’t to everyone’s liking; as London’s Victoria and Albert Museum points out, some found it “superficial, degenerate, and illogical.” Leading rococo artists included François Boucher, Jean-Antoine Watteau, and Thomas Gainsborough. 

1800s to 1850s: Romanticism 

Reaching its peak around 1800 to 1850, Romanticism marked a shift away from the dominant classical tradition. With an emphasis on the imagination, emotion, and individualism, it rejected the calm, ordered world of classicism and Enlightenment-era thought in Europe, and instead showed a far deeper appreciation of nature and a preference for emotion and the senses over reason. The movement included the likes of John Constable, J.M.W. Turner, Eugène Delacroix, and the visionary artist William Blake. 

1840s to 1870s: Realism 

Realism as an artistic movement began in the mid-19th century, alongside the development of naturalism. Its focus was very much on subjects painted from everyday life and in a naturalistic manner: scenes of peasant laborers, working-class life, crowds in city streets, and people drinking in cafes and bars. It also brought about a more open and frank treatment of the body and romantic subjects. At the time, the work of realist artists such as Gustave Courbet, Jean-François Millet, and Honoré Daumier caused a great deal of shock among the primarily upper- and middle-class audiences that typically viewed and purchased art.

1860s to 1900s: Impressionism 

Impressionism developed in France from the early 1860s to the 1880s, spearheaded by artists such as Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas, and Paul Cézanne. The movement was based on spontaneity and painting outdoors, in contrast to the more traditional process of making sketches to work with later in the studio. Impressionist artists focused largely on landscapes and scenes of everyday life, often using small but easily visible brush strokes to emphasize movement and the shifting nature of light. The impressionists were ridiculed by the established art community in France, but today remain highly popular and widely celebrated. From around 1886, a group of artists — most famously Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, Georges Seurat, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and Vincent Van Gogh — began to expand and develop impressionism in distinctly different directions. They became known as the post-impressionists. 

1907 to 1920: Cubism 

Cubism was a revolutionary artistic movement pioneered by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. Beginning in 1907, the radical new style of painting transformed everyday objects, landscapes, and people into geometric shapes, as if seen from multiple points of view at the same time. This not only served to emphasize the three-dimensional form of the object portrayed, but also stressed the two-dimensional nature of the canvas. The groundbreaking shift in perspective and perception opened up entirely new ways for portraying visual realities in art, making cubism one of the most influential artistic styles of the 20th century.

1920s to 1960s: Surrealism 

While cubism sought to change our way of seeing things, surrealism sought to tear down our grasp of rational thought altogether. Led by the French poet André Breton, who defined the movement in 1924 with his Manifesto of Surrealism, it challenged society’s imposed values and norms, and brought to the forefront the power of the unconscious mind and dreams. Fundamentally, its aim was to revolutionize the human experience. Notable surrealist artists included Salvador Dalí, René Magritte, Max Ernst, and Joan Miró. 

1950s to 1970s: Pop Art

Pop art developed primarily in Britain and the United States from the 1950s to the 1970s. The movement’s name comes from the use of imagery and references from popular culture. It was partly a rebellion against what artists had been taught at art school and what was typically seen in museums — things the pop artists saw as having little to do with everyday life. Instead, pop artists used movies, popular music, comic books, advertising, and product packaging as their sources, and incorporated techniques and materials from the commercial world. Andy Warhol is arguably the most famous of all the pop artists, known for his iconic replication of brands such as Campbell’s Soup and images of celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe.