Collection

Worth a Thousand Words

Good photographs blur the lines between art and documentary record. Some are created to make a particular argument, others take on a life of their own after they were captured. Either way, powerful images can change history by building or destroying myths, or by galvanizing political action. This collection features the stories that have followed in the wake of some of the past century’s most iconic photographs.

created by Bunk Editors on July 15, 2024

Workers atop the 70-story RCA building in New York's Rockefeller Center having lunch on a steel beam.

One of the Most Iconic Photos of American Workers is Not What it Seems

But “Lunch atop a Skyscraper,” which was taken during the Great Depression, has come to represent the country's resilience, especially on Labor Day.

by Jessica Contrera via Retropolis on September 1, 2019

"Lunch Atop a Skyscraper," 1932
 
A photograph staged as a corporate publicity stunt for a building ended up symbolizing the grit of working Americans.

The Making of an Iconic Photograph: Dorothea Lange’s Migrant Mother

The complex backstory of one of the most famous images of the Great Depression.

by Jason Kottke via kottke.org on January 31, 2019

"Migrant Mother," 1936

The woman in the photograph has a very different story than the one we have long used her image to tell.

Ella Watson in American Gothic, photographed by Gordon Parks.

She Was No ‘Mammy’

Gordon Parks’s most famous photograph, "American Gothic," was of a cleaning woman in Washington, D.C. She has a story to tell.

by Salamishah Tillet via The Atlantic on May 8, 2024

"Government Charwoman (American Gothic)," 1942

A portrait designed to disrupt ideas about gender, race, and work.

Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc's self-immolation during the Vietnam War.

The Journalist Who Photographed the Burning Monk

The man behind an iconic Vietnam War image captured ‘the ugliest events of our time.'

by Ray E. Boomhower via Zócalo Public Square on June 8, 2023

"The Burning Monk," 1963

Photojournalism so powerful that it affected the events it covered.

A First Glimpse of Our Magnificent Earth, Seen From the Moon

The first people to view our planet from the moon were transformed by the experience. In this film, they tell their story.

by Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee via New York Times Op-Docs on October 2, 2018

"Earthrise," 1968

A photograph that offered a completely new perspective on the world.

A young girl kneels by a dead body, yelling.

The Girl in the Kent State Photo and the Lifelong Burden of Being a National Symbol

In 1970, an image of a dead protester at Kent State became iconic. But what happened to the 14-year-old kneeling next to him?

by Patricia McCormick via Washington Post Magazine on April 19, 2021

"Kent State," 1970

A snapshot that was instantaneous, but whose effects on the collective conscious — and the lives of its photographer and its subject — have endured.

Myths Distort the Reality Behind a Horrific Photo of the Vietnam War and Exaggerate Its Impact

The ‘Napalm Girl’ photo is much more than powerful evidence of war’s indiscriminate effects on civilians.

by W. Joseph Campbell via The Conversation on June 2, 2022

"Napalm Girl," 1972

While it may have been too little too late to move public opinion on the Vietnam War, its power as an antiwar symbol has only grown since.

The Falling Man

Since 9/11 the story behind the Falling Man, and the search for him, is our most intimate connection to the horror of that day.

by Tom Junod via Esquire on September 9, 2017

"The Falling Man," 2001

An image difficult to see and yet hard to look away from, of a man whose anonymity feels as haunting as finding his identity would.

Polar bear walks across melting ice in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

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Did One Photograph Change the Fate of the Arctic Wildlife Refuge?

What the political fight over a photo teaches us about the power of art, grassroots activism and images.

by Finis Dunaway via Made by History on March 3, 2023

Polar bear, 2003

A simple narrative built around this photo changed a Senate vote, a more complex one drives a coalition of activists to continue the fight.

Person walks with Confederate flag in the U.S. Capitol

The Whole Story in a Single Photo

An image from the Capitol captures the distance between who we purport to be and who we have actually been.

by Clint Smith via The Atlantic on January 8, 2021

January 6, 2021

As the nation attempted to process the significance of the U.S. Capitol riot, we immediately turned to the symbolism captured in a photograph.