Indelible Images

Claudio Sgarbi says he "was totally astonished" when he examined a manuscript including a drawing that seemed to prefigure Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man.

The Other Vitruvian Man

Was Leonardo da Vinci's famous anatomical chart actually a collaborative effort?

“It is splendid to have people who refuse to recognise difficulties,” British Capt. Robert Falcon Scott wrote early in the expedition to the South Pole. But they would after they set out from the pole.

The Doomed South Pole Voyage's Remaining Photographs

A 1912 photograph proves explorer Captain Robert Scott reached the South Pole—but wasn't the first

Carole Pohn, with her children Jennifer and Andy in 1962 or '63, says photographer Vivian Maier called her "the only civilized person" in the Chicago suburb where they were neighbors.

Vivian Maier: The Unheralded Street Photographer

A chance find has rescued the work of the camera-toting baby sitter, and gallery owners are taking notice

Ralph Eugene Meatyard said that masks erased the differences between people. He photographed his family, shown here, in 1962.

Ralph Eugene Meatyard: The Man Behind the Masks

The "dedicated amateur" photographer had a strange way of getting his subjects to reveal themselves

"Luminescent and, unlike me, very tall" is how photographer Ruth Orkin described her friend, then know as Jinx Allen.

An Image of Innocence Abroad

Neither photographer Ruth Orkin nor her subject Jinx Allen realized the stir the collaboration would make

Roller Rover is a definitive example of the work that has made William Wegman one of the world's most widely known conceptual artists.

Fay Ray: The Supermodel Dog

As photographer William Wegman tells it, his cinnamon-gray Weimaraner wasn't content to just sit and stay

"The most hated show of the year" is how a critic described Eggleston's landmark 1976 exhibition.

William Eggleston's Big Wheels

This enigmatic 1970 portrait of a tricycle took photography down a whole new road

Barbara Morgan's portrait of Martha Graham may be the most famous photo ever taken of an American dancer.

An Unforgettable Photo of Martha Graham

Barbara Morgan's portrait of the iconic dancer helped move modern dance to center stage

In 1966, Henry Carfagna, the Suffolk Downs track photographer, prepared to take his standard picture of the horses driving toward the wire when he saw a man run onto the track.

At Suffolk Downs, an Unintended Spectator

Photographer Henry Carfagna was in the perfect position to catch the moment when a horse race took a bizarre turn

Many of the tracks A.F. Van Order frequented were built of wood and banked to enable riders to go faster.

The Early, Deadly Days of Motorcycle Racing

Photographer A.F. Van Order captured the thrills and spills of board-track motorcycle racing in the 1910s

The Journal-American newsroom typified its time: crowded, messy and organized—like the floor of a factory—to get the news out as quickly as possible.

The Newsroom Rush of Old

Newsrooms may look different today, but their need for speed never wavers

In his new book, iDubai, Joel Sternfeld publishes scores of photographs from his iPhone.

Seeing Dubai Through a Cell Phone Camera

At a shopping mall in Dubai, Joel Sternfeld documents the peak of consumer culture with his iPhone

J.P. Morgan sat for two minutes; one of the resulting portraits defined his reputation.

J. P. Morgan as Cutthroat Capitalist

In 1903, photographer Edward Steichen portrayed the American tycoon in an especially ruthless light

"I'm on your side, " Elvis told Nixon. Then the singer asked if he could have a badge from the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs.

When Elvis Met Nixon

An Oval Office photograph captured the bizarre encounter between the king of rock and roll and the president

Zygmunt Aksienow rescued a caged canary as a "sign of the normal life I was used to."

Capturing Warsaw at the Dawn of World War II

As German bombs began falling on Poland in 1939, an American photographer made a fateful decision

Bill Owens' photograph of Richie Ferguson in 1971 became one of the most evocative images in Suburbia, a collection Owens published in 1972.

Shooting the American Dream in Suburbia

Bill Owens was seeking a fresh take on suburban life when he spotted a plastic-rifle-toting boy named Richie Ferguson

James T. Tanner's photographs of the ivory-billed woodpecker with guide J.J. Kuhn were believed to be the only pictures of a living nestling.

A Close Encounter With the Rarest Bird

Newfound negatives provide fresh views of the young ivory-billed woodpecker

A long-anonymous college student in New York City reflected both the gravity and zaniness of that first Earth Day protest.

An Earth Day Icon, Unmasked

The 1970 photograph became an instant environmental classic, but its subject has remained nameless until now

Allen Ginsberg, facing the camera, believed that both poetry and photography could reveal "the luminousness of the ordinary event."

Allen Ginsberg's Beat Family Album

The famous beat poet's photographs reveal an American counterculture at work and play

Frances Benjamin Johnston could be both ladylike and bohemian, which abetted her career as a photographer.

Victorian Womanhood, in All Its Guises

Frances Benjamin Johnston's self-portraits show a woman was never content playing just one role

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