Digital photography, citizen journalism, Instagram, TikTok or other social media did not kill photojournalism as it was often glumly foretold. Yet, one revered art form in the world of photography had suffered greatly: the photoessay.
Instant photography has created an environment where individual photos often take precedence over cohesive narratives. Images are often consumed in a rapid-scrolling manner, making it difficult for a longform essay with subtlety and depth to capture people’s attention or come to foreground.
Instant sharing also lacks the careful curation and storytelling that defined great photoessays. General decline of print media, where several photos are narratively linked together and sometimes accompanied by an editor or another journalist’s take on the events depicted, has contributed to the photoessay’s slow decline.
The photo essay was not invented by one man or in one place but it began in the Weimer Germany in the late 1920s with illustrated weeklies in Berlin and Munich. When Hitler came to power, many of these men who worked on these weeklies, many of them Jewish or immigrant, like editors Stefan Lorant and Kurt Safransky, photographers like Alfred Eisenstaedt, left to other countries where they helped found magazines like Picture Post and LIFE. After the end of World War II, with television providing news images faster, the magazines focussed more on innovative story-telling and in-depth investigative looks.
Now, while it isn’t entirely extinct, the photoessay definitely faces challenges. Here at Iconic Photos, we recognize that this art form still has its place for those who appreciate the depth, context, and storytelling power it offers. As such, on this page, we are curating past great photoessays from various publications.
Notre Dame de la Grande Trappe in Soligny
Andre Kertesz
Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung – January 6, 1929
Behind Closed Doors
Erich Salomon
Fortune – September, 1932
Pension.
Photographers Unknown
Fortune – January, 1933
(Art director: Eleanor Treacy)
Fasching Festival
Alfred Eisenstaedt
Munchener Illustrierte – February 26, 1933
Mr. G.
Photographer unknown
Munchener Illustrierte – March 5, 1933
(Editor: Stefan Lorant)
Mussolini.
Felix H. Man
Münchner Illustrierte Presse – 1931
Weekly Illustrated – August 4, 1934
Hitler’s Take-over
Martin Munkacsi
Berliner Illustrierte Zeitung – March 26, 1935
Chamberlain and the Beautiful Llama.
Photographer unknown
Lilliput – July, 1938
(Editor: Stefan Lorant)
Golden Gate Bridge
Peter Stackpole
Life Magazine – May 31 1937
Candidate Taft Stumps Florida
Robert Capa
Life Magazine – February 19, 1940
The Lindy Hop
Gjon Mili
Life Magazine – August 23, 1943
Rodeo
Hy Peskin
Look Magazine – January 22, 1946
How America Lives
Various Photographers
Ladies Home Journal – 1940 – 1960
Editor: John G. Morris
People are People the World Over
Various Photographers
Ladies Home Journal – 1948 – 1949
Editor: John G. Morris
The Roosevelt Face in the Roosevelt Recession
Thomas D. McAvoy
Life Magazine – January 24, 1938
And Again! Back to School
Kurt Hutton
Picture Post – October 8, 1938
Returning of the Austrian Prisoners
Ernst Haas
Heute – August 3, 1949
Life Magazine – August 8, 1949
There Was a Christmas in Korea
David Douglas Duncan
Life Magazine – December 25, 1950
Hunger
Werner Bischof
Life magazine – May 28, 1951
Look Magazine – February 10, 1953
Everything Goes on in a Roman Piazza
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Life Magazine, July 20, 1953
Old Age
Cornell Capa
Life Magazine – July 23, 1959
The Sioux Indians
John Vachon
Look Magazine – April 19, 1955
Air Age: Man’s High New Realm
Howard Sochurek
Life Magazine – June 18, 1956
Image of Japan
Art Kane
Look Magazine – September 10, 1963
Cutting the Waves for a Classic Cup
George Silk
Life Magazine – August 24, 1962
Ominous Spectacle of Birmingham
Charles Moore
Life Magazine – May 17, 1963
Ku Klux Klan
Paul Gelinas
Paris-Match, September 14, I963
The Segs
Carl Fischer
Esquire – January, 1964
The Lash of Success
Grey Villet
Life Magazine – November 16, 1962
Le Duel de Moscou
Elliott Erwitt and Lucien Nau
Paris-Match, August 8, 1959
What Makes Sammy Davis, Jr, Run?
Burt Glinn
Esquire – October, 1959
The Way-Out Way of Life
Look MagazineBernstein
Look Magazine – September 25, 1962
Flowers
Farrell Grehan
Life Magazine – April 3, 1964
Transport – Discards and Dream
Ralph Crane
Life Magazine – June 20, I960
“The flames rise” (Nehru’s funeral)
Eliot Elisofon
Life Magazine – June 5, 1964
Pioneers airmen
Douglas Kirkland
Look Magazine – January 12, 1965
Picasso
David Douglas Duncan
Paris Match – April 12, 1958
Look Magazine – October 13, 1959
Siddhartha
Will McBride
TWEN – July 7 1969
Vida Dificil
Claudia Andujar
Realidade – July 1968
Sweetness and Tang
John Loengard and Bert Stern
Life Magazine -November 23, 1962
Sur sa toile (Chagall)
Izis
Paris-Match – September 26, 1964
“… to be self-evident …”
Art Kane
Look MagazineMagazine – January 15, 1963
Danger flare and flight’s end
Howard Sochurek
Life Magazine – February 10, 1961
The King’s Sword
Robert Lebeck
Paris Match – July 9, 1960
Life Magazine – July 11, 1960
Kristall – No. 16, 1960
Sharpeville Funeral
Peter Magubane
Drum Magazine – May 1960
Vertical Journey
Diane Arbus
Esquire – July 1960
Life In A Delhi Slum
Kishore Parekh
The Hindustan Times – May 30, 1961
The Incredibles
Irving Penn
Look Magazine – January 9, 1968
The Beatles
Richard Avedon
Look Magazine – January 9, 1968
Cuba
Ed van der Elsken
Avenue Magazine – December 1967
Nuba Wrestlers
George Rodger
National Geographic – February 1951
Sophia Loren’s Villa
Alfred Eisenstaedt
Life Magazine – September 18, 1964
Vietnam War – In Color
Larry Burrows
Life Magazine – January 15, 1963
Crete
Irving Penn
Vogue – January 15, 1965
La Liberation de la France: Ils Debarquent
Various photographers
Paris-Match – June 6, 1964
Les coupeurs de tete…
Tony Saulnier
Paris-Match – June 16, 1962
“Face of pleasure”
Photographers unknown
Look Magazine – January 12, 1965
“Some leaders are odd and gaudy”
James A. Kern and Nina Leen
Life Magazine – February 19, 1965
Archer and warrior
Burt Glinn
HOLIDAY – November, 1960
Braque
Marc Riboud
Paris-Match – September 14, 1963
The Beauty of Swedish Women
Irving Penn
Look Magazine – February 9, 1965
“Campaign to beat all the birds”
Howard Sochurek
Life Magazine – February 10, 1961
Joy eludes a chant
Paul Fusco
Look Magazine – July 28, 1961
Girls grow up fast in the City
Paul Fusco
Look Magazine – July 28, 1964
The magic of this forest floor
Irving Penn
Look Magazine – February 9, 1965
The amazing laser
Fritz Goro
Life Magazine -January 11, 1963
Beauties Of The Common Tool
Walker Evans
Fortune – July 1955
Gaza
David Douglas Duncan
Colliers – August 3, 1956
Heroes of Budapest
Various photographers
Paris Match – November 10, 1956
Refugees At The Swiss Border
Waldemar Dürst
Die Woche – November 12, 1956
New York
Yuri Zhukov
Ogoniok – January 1957
Vallejismo
Héctor García
Ojo Magazine – October 1958
How It Feels To Be Black In South Africa
Ernest Cole
Sunday Times Magazine – November 27, 1967
A Matter of Reasonable Doubt
Abraham Zapruder
Life Magazine – November 25, 1966
Olympians
Bruce Weber
Interview – January/February 1984
Love Parade
Wolfgang Tillmans
I-D – September 1992
James is a Girl
Nan Goldin
New York Times – February 4, 1996
A Vision of Iran
Gilles Peress
The New York Times Magazine – June 15, 1980
Somalia
James Nachtwey
The New York Times Magazine – December 6, 1992
Wreck of Titanic
Robert Ballard et al
National Geographic – December 1985; December 1986; October 1987
Madidi, Will Bolivia Drown its Spectacular New National Park?
Joel Sartore
National Geographic – March 2000
Franklin Roosevelt Has a Wild West
Margaret Bourke- White
Life Magazine – November 23, 1936
A Woman Photographs the Face of a Changing City
Berenice Abbott
Life Magazine – January 3, 1938
Back to the Middle Ages
Picture Post – November 26, 1938
War Photographers
Various
Life Magazine – November 5, 1945
The Private Life of Gwyned Filling
Leonard McCombe
Life Magazine – May 3, 1948
Country Doctor
W. Eugene Smith
Life Magazine – September 20, 1948
A Last Look at Peiping
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Life Magazine – January 3, 1949
China
Rolf Gillhausen
Stern – December 1958 – March 1959
China
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Life Magazine – January 5, 1959
Fight Trainer
Elior Elisofon
Life Magazine – February 12, 1951
Limbo
Simpson Kalisher
PAGEANT – November, 1955
The Congressional
Robert Frank
FORTUNE – November, 1955
The Real West Side Story
Paul Fusco
Look Magazine – February 16, 1960
Chartres
Gjon Mili
Life Magazine – December 15, 1961
Christmas at Cuzco
Irving Penn
Vogue – December, 1949
Monsoon
Brian Brake
Life Magazine – September 8, 1961
Paris-Match, September 23, 1961
Epoca, October 1, 1961
The Queen – October 11, 1961
Ballad of the Bird
Saul Leiter
ESQUIRE – December, 1957
Ballet Folklorico
Herbert M. Migdoll
AMERYKA. (Polish Edition), No. 73, 1965
Displaced Germans Pour Unwelcome into Berlin
Leonard McCombe
Life Magazine – October 15, 1945
Bad Boy’s Story
Ralph Crane
Life Magazine – May 12, 1947
Harlem Gang Leaders
Gordon Parks
Life Magazine – November 1, 1948
Spain
Dmitri Kessel
Life Magazine – April 4 1949
Childbirth
Wayne Miller
U. S. CAMERA – 1949
Nurse Midwife
W. Eugene Smith
Life Magazine – December 3, 1951
Winter in Maine
Kosti Ruohomaa
Life Magazine – February 26, 1951
Spanish Village
W. Eugene Smith
Life Magazine – April 9, 1951
A Portfolio of Distinguished Britons
Alfred Eisenstaedt
Life Magazine – January 14, 1952
A New Way to Look at the U.S.
Margaret Bourke-White
Life Magazine – Apri 14, 1952
The Prairie
Howard Sochurek
Life Magazine – December 15, 1952
Three Mormon Towns
Dorothea Lange and Ansel Adams
Life Magazine – September 6, 1951
People in Russia – Travel in the USSR
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Life Magazine – January 17, 1955
Isles of Romance in the South Seas
Eliot Elisofon
Life Magazine – January 24, 1955
The Magic of Color in Motion
Ernst Haas
Life Magazine – August 11, 1950
Spectacle of Spooks to Be Wary of on Halloween
George Silk
Life Magazine – October 31, 1960
Death of a Valley
Dorothea Lange and Pirkle Jones
Aperture – August 3, 1960
Mother’s Day Off
Grace Robertson
Picture Post – September 25, 1954
A Man of Mercy
W. Eugene Smith
Life Magazine – November 15, 1954
Irish Country People
Dorothea Lange
Life Magazine – March 21, 1955
Beauties of the Common Tool
Walker Evans
Fortune Magazine – July 1955
Pittsburgh
W Eugene Smith
Popular Photography – September 9, 1959
Drama beneath a City Window
W. Eugene Smith
Life Magazine – March 10, 1958
In a Dutiful Family Trials with Mother
Cornell Capa
Life Magazine – July 13, 1959
The Spirit and Frenzy of Olympian Efforts
George Silk
Life Magazine – July 18, 1960
The Era of Sentiment and Splendor
Clarence John Laughlin
Life Magazine – October 24, 1960
Seeing Ourselves as an American Sees Us
Bruce Davidson
The Queen – August 27, 1951
In Tiny Devices, a Revolution
Fritz Goro
Life Magazine – March 10, 1961
The Last of the Barnstormers
Constantine Manos
ESQUIRE – October 1961
The Last Sitting
Bert Stern
Vogue – September, 1962
Eros – Autumn, 1962
Vogue – September, 1982
The Lash of Success
Grey Villet
Life Magazine – November 16, 1962
We Are Animals in a World No One Knows
Bill Eppridge
Life Magazine – February 26, 1965
The Shakers
John Loengard
Life Magazine – March 17, 1967
A Family of His Own
Leonard McCombe
Life Magazine – December 17, 1971
Death-Flow from a Pipe
W. Eugene Smith and Aileen Smith
Life Magazine – June 2, 1972
The Family
Richard Avedon
Rolling Stones – October 21, 1976
Au lieu…
Rene Burri
Paris-Match – January 11, 1964
“The face of war”
Robert Freson
The Sunday Times Magazine – February 23, 1964
Boring from below
George Silk
Life Magazine – May 24, 1963
Spring comes to England
Ernst Haas
Look Magazine – May 21, 1963
‘X’ = The French Power Elite
Sabine Weiss
ESQUIRE – July, 1961
Irrigated crop land
Margaret Bourke-White
Life Magazine – January 3, 1955
One Way
Phillip Harrington
Look Magazine – March 26, 1963
Je vois! dit l’enfant
Calogero Cascio
Paris Match – November 28, 1961
Russian Orthodoxy
Cornell Capa
Life Magazine – September 11, 1959
Spectacles
Arnold Newman
HOLIDAY – July, 1963
Bullfight
Ernst Haas
Life Magazine – July 29, 1957
Penn’s Japan
Irving Penn
Vogue – August 15, 1961
Freedom’s Fearful Foe: Poverty
Gordon Parks
Life Magazine – June 16, 1961
A new American record in New York: Misery
Henri Ballot
O Cruzeiro – October 7, 1961
It’s hard to keep cool on 100th Street
Bruce Davidson
The Sunday Times Magazine – April 21, 1968
Splendor of a Forgotten Tribe
Leni Riefenstahl
The Sunday Times Magazine
The President and His Son
Alan Stanley Tretick
Look Magazine – December 3, 1963
Heroic Vietnam
Roberto Salas
Cuba Magazine – June 1967
Vietnam: Old Glory, Young Blood
Don McCullin
Sunday Times Magazine – March 24, 1968
Blind Boys Play
Charles Harbutt
Jubilee – September, 1962
Times Square
Various photographers
The New York Times Magazine – May 18, 1980
The Kuwaiti Inferno
Sebastião Salgado
The New York Times Magazine – June 9, 1991
Empire of the Stage
Lord Snowdon
Vanity Fair – November 1995
‘S-21’
Nhem Ein et al
Reportage – April 1995
Shooting Past 80
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Vanity Fair – January, 2001
(Photography Director: Susan White)
Being 13
Various photographers
The New York Times Magazine – 1998
Dream House
Gregory Crewdson
The New York Times Magazine – November 10, 2002
Obama’s People
Nadav Kander
The New York Times Magazine – January 18, 2009
Yankee Papa 13
Larry Burrows
Life Magazine – April 16, 1965
James Karales
The Selma Montgomery March
Look Magazine – May 18, 1965
Sonny Liston vs Cassius Clay
Various Photographers
Sports Illustrated – June 7, 1965
Prenativity
Fritz Goro
Life Magazine –September 10, 1965
Valparaiso
Sergio Larrain
Du Magazine – February 1966
Creation
Lennart Nilsson
Life Magazine –
Arctic Soldiers
Mikhail Savin
Ogoniok – March 21, 1967
Biafra: La Guerre Ignoree
Floris De Bonneville & Gilles Caron
Paris-Match – May 4, 1968
Insurrection du Quartier Latin
Various Photographers
Paris Match – May 18, 1968
Saigon
Philip Jones Griffiths
Telegraph – August 2, 1968
View From the Moon
Bill Anders
Life Magazine – January 20, 1969
Untitled
Daido Moriyama
Provoke – August 1969
One Week’s Dead
Life Magazine – June 27, 1969
On The Moon
Neil Armstrong & Edwin Aldrin
Life Magazine – August 8, 1969
My Lai
Ron Haeberle
Life Magazine – December 5, 1969
Siege Of Derry
Don Mccullin
The Sunday Times Magazine – December 19, 1971
Munich Massacre
Various Photographers
Paris Match – September 16, 1972
Bangkok
Hiroji Kubota
Sekai – September 1976
Nicaragua
Susan Meiselas
The New York Times Magazine – July 30, 1978
Café Lehmitz
Anders Petersen
Stern – November 1979
Berlin
Helmut Newton
Vogue – November 1979
Battaglia & Zecchin
Mafia in Sicily
L’Ora – January 7, 1980
The New York Times Magazine
Solidarity
Alain Bizos
Actuel – October 1980
Dorrie’s Journey
Eugene Richards
American Photographer – June 1981
Falkland Road
Mary Ellen Mark
Stern – September 9, 1981
New York Diary
Raymond Depardon
Liberation – July 8,9,27, August 8, 1981
Soccos Massacre
Vera Lentz
Konkret – March 3, 1984
Bhopal
Raghu Rai
India Today – December 31, 1984
Sahel
Sebastião Salgado
Liberation – January 24, April 16, August 21, 1985
Iran Iraq War
Reza & Mandocher Deghati
Liberation – February 14, 1985
Serra Pelada
Sebastião Salgado
The Sunday Times Magazine – May 24, 1987
The New York Times Magazine
Domestic Violence
Donna Ferrato
The Philadelphia Inquirer – July 26, 1987
Stammheim 7th Floor
Bernd Hoff
Tempo – October 1987
AIDS In the USA
Alon Reininger
Life Magazine – January 1988
Gypsies
Lialia Kuznetsova
Ogoniok – July 30, 1988
Honey Hunters of Nepal
Eric Valli
National Geographic – November 1989
Tiananmen Square
Patrick Zachmann
Sette – June 1989
Fall Of The Berlin Wall
Various Photographers
Paris Match – November 23, 1989
Ceausescu’s Legacy
Mike Abrahams
The Independent Magazine – March 3, 1990
Pollution In East Europe
Antonin Kratochvil
The New York Times Magazine – April 29, 1990
Killing The Chickens
Photographer(s) Unknown
The Independent Magazine – June 2, 1990
Gulf War
Various Photographers
Newsweek – March 11, 1991
Eruption of Mt Pinatubo
Philippe Bourseiller
Daily Telegraph – June 15, 1991
The Soviet Mafia
Hans-Jürgen Burkard
Stern – November 28, 1991
Russian Women’s Prison
Jane Evelyn Atwood
The Independent Magazine – January 25, 1992
Burma
Daniel Schwartz
Du Magazine – November 1992
Afghanistan
Steve McCurry
National Geographic – October 1993
Zimbabwe Aids Ward
Gideon Mendel
The Independent Magazine – November 27, 1993
New England
Alfred Seiland
Frankfurter Allgemeine Magazin – December 30, 1993
Fes
Bruno Barbey
Du Magazine – July/August 1994
Chechnya
Paul Lowe
The Independent Magazine – January 14, 1995
Chechnya
Stanley Greene
The New York Times Magazine – February 26, 1996
War
Various Photographers
Colors – March 1996
War In Europe
James Nachtwey
El Mundo – March 4, 1996
Sun Kitsch
Martin Parr
W Magazine – January 1997
The Thatcher Era
Roger Hutchings
L’Express – May 7, 1997
Mosh
Elaine Constantine
Face – October 1997
Mt Pandemonium
Trent Parke
The Australian Magazine – September 18-19, 1999
Earth From Above
Yann Arthus-Bertrand
Geo – October 1999
Rio
Various Photographers
Big Magazine – 1999
Megatransect
Michael Nichols
National Geographic – October 2000
Lukole Refugee Camp
Various Photographers
Colors – December 2000
Haiti Ritual
Cristina Garcia Rodero
La Vanguardia – June 17, 2001
Immigration In Europe
Ad Van Denderen
Geo – October 2001
One Week In September
Jonas Karlsson
Vanity Fair – November 2001
Untouchables
William Albert Allard
National Geographic – June 2001
This Is My World
Various Photographers
Gazeta Wyborcza – November 3, 2002
Afghanistan
Simon Norfolk
El Pais – September 8, 2002
Afghanistan
Rinko Kawauchi
Foil –January 30, 2003
The Hmong
Philip Blenkinsop
Time Magazine Asia – May 5, 2003
Ramallah Fashion
Nadia Benchallal
Vogue Hommes – Autumn Winter 2003/4
Israel/Palestine
Various Photographers
Days Japan – May 2004
Feet Stories
Myrzik & Jarisch
Süddeutsche Zeitung –May 14, 2004
Darfur
James Nachtwey
Time Magazine – October 4, 2004
Democracy
Richard Avedon
New Yorker – November 1, 2004
Tsunami
Paris Match – January 12, 2005