"从一些最早的摄影作品，例如Nicephore Niepce在1827年拍摄的八小时曝光得屋顶照片和Louis Daguerre拍摄的**的1838年街景，一直到马丁•帕尔（Martin Parr），本书既是一部关于这种媒介的历史，也是对它的社会，历史和艺术影响的一次具体分析。我们收录了20世纪20年代的超现实主义实验镜头和20世纪30年代的真实的照相现实主义，包括Dorothea Lange的《迁徙的母亲》（Migrant Mother）。 我们看到了力量制造者（Che Guevara）和令人伤心的人（Marilyn Monroe），以及全部的人类情感和体验，摄影以生动的方式见证了全部：从杜伊斯瑙（Doisneau）拍摄的欣喜若狂的《市政厅前的亲吻》（1950年）到Nick Ut拍摄的的《战火中的女孩》（Napalm Against Civilians）——表现了九岁的Phan Thi Kim Phuc为逃避凝固汽油弹的攻击赤裸着奔向照相机——中的恐惧。Photographs have a strange and powerful way of shaping the way we see the world. The most successful images enter our collective consciousness, defining eras, making history, or simply touching something so fundamentally human and universal that they have become resonant icons all over the globe. To explore this unique influence, Photo Icons puts some of the most important photographic landmarks under the microscope.

From some of the earliest photography, such as Nicephore Niepce's 1827 eight-hour-exposure rooftop picture and Louis Daguerre's famous 1838 street scene, through to Martin Parr, this is as much a history of the medium as a case-by-case analysis of its social, historical, and artistic impact. We take in experimental Surrealist shots of the 1920s and the gritty photorealism of the 1930s, including Dorothea Lange's Migrant Mother. We witness the power-makers (Che Guevara) and the heartbreakers (Marilyn Monroe) as well as the great gamut of human emotions and experiences to which photography bears such vivid witness: from the euphoric Kiss in Front of City Hall (1950) by Doisneau to the horror of Nick Ut's Napalm Against Civilians showing nine-year-old Phan Thi Kim Phuc running naked toward the camera from South Vietnamese napalm.

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