Lewis Hine: Icarus, Empire State Building, gelatin silver print, 187 × 237 mm, 1930 (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Ford Motor Company Collection of Ford Motor Company and John C. Waddell, 1987, Accession No. 1987.1100.119); courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art

John Adams Whipple and James Wallace Black: The Moon, salted paper print from glass negative, 210 × 157 mm, 1857–60 (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Robert O. Dougan Collection, Gift of Warner Communications Inc., 1981, Accession No. 1981.1229.19); courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art

William and Frederick Langenheim: Eclipse of the Sun, daguerreotype, from 32×25 mm to 72×59 mm, May 26, 1854 (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gilman Collection, Gift of The Howard Gilman Foundation, 2005, Accession Number: 2005.100.614a–g); image © The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Lutterodt Family Studios: Ladies of Lagos in Fancy Ball Dresses, Lagos, Nigeria, c. 1890 (Washington, DC, West African Photographic Album, Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Accession ID: EEPA 1995-170012); Courtesy of National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution

John Murray: Taj Mahal and Gardens, backlit, waxed paper negative, 385×472 mm, c. 1855 (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Rubel Collection, Purchase, Anonymous Gift and Cynthia Hazen Polsky Gift, 1997, Accession ID: 1997.382.57); image © The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Alphonse Bon Le Blondel: Postmortem, daguerreotype, 89×119 mm, c. 1850 (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gilman Collection, Purchase, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Gift through Joyce and Robert Menschel, 2005, Accession ID: 2005.100.31); image © The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Carleton E. Watkins: Devil’s Canyon, Geysers, Looking Down, albumen silver print from glass negative, 398×524 mm, 1868–1870 (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund, 1989, Accession ID: 1989.1082); image © The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Oliver H. Willard (attrib.): Light Artillery, Sergeant Major, albumen silver print from glass negative, image: 203×152 mm, mount: 333×257 mm, 1866 (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Purchase, Saundra B. Lane Gift, in honor of Charles Isaacs, 2010, Accession Number: 2010.36); image © The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Marie-Charles-Isidore Choiselat and Stanislas Ratel: Landscape with Cottage, daguerreotype, 164×217 mm, 1844 (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Louis V. Bell Fund, 1994, Accession ID: 1994.417); image © The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Gustave Le Gray: The Great Wave, Sète, albumen silver print from glass negative, 33.7 x 41.4 cm (13 1/4 x 16 5/16 in.), 1857 (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of John Goldsmith Phillips, 1976, Accession ID: 1976.646); photo © The Metropolitan Museum of Art http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/190013692

Nicéphore Niépce: View from a window of Niépce’s house, Saint-Loup-de-Varennes, c. 1827 (Bradford, Great Britain, National Media Museum); photo credit: SSPL/National Media Museum/Art Resource, NY

Louis Daguerre: Portrait of an artist, daguerreotype, 1/4 plate, 910×690 mm (visible), on 156×130 mm, c. 1843; image courtesy of George Eastman House, International Museum of Photography and Film

Hippolyte Bayard: Self-portrait, black-and-white photograph, late 19th century (Archives Larousse, Paris); photo credit: Archives Larousse, Paris, France/Giraudon/The Bridgeman Art Library International

John Adams Whipple: View of the Moon, daguerreotype, February 26, 1852; image courtesy of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Harvard College Observatory, Plate Stacks

E. Thiésson: Naturelle de Sofala Monomo[tapa] âgeé de 30 ans, daguerreotype, 1/3 plate, 90×65 mm (visible), on 153×130 mm, 1845; image courtesy of George Eastman House, International Museum of Photography and Film

Noël-Marie-Paymal Lerebours and Armand-Hippolyte-Louis Fizeau: Excursions Daguerriennes. Vues et monuments les plus remarquables du globe, etchings, aquatains, lithographs, and photogravures after daguerreotypes, 1840s (New York, Metropolitan Musem of Art , David Hunter McAlpin Fund, 1947, Accession No. 47.152); courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Alexander Gardner: Home of a Rebel Sharpshooter, from Photographic Sketchbook of the Civil War, plate 41, wet collodion print, July 1863 (Library of Congress)

Albert Sands Southworth and Josiah Johnson Hawes: The Letter, daguerreotype, 400×349 mm, c. 1850 (Washington, DC, National Gallery of Art, Patrons’ Permanent Fund, 1999.94.1)

O. G. Rejlander: Two Ways of Life, carbon print, image: 406×762 mm, frame: 714×1042 mm, 1857, printed 1920s (The Royal Photographic Society Collection at the National Media Museum, Bradford, United Kingdom); image © Royal Photographic Society/NMEM/SSPL

Julia Margaret Cameron: Zoe, Maid of Athens, albumen silver print from glass negative, 30.1 x 24.5 cm (11 7/8 x 9 5/8 in.), c. 1866 (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Rubel Collection, Purchase, Lila Acheson Wallace, Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee, and Muriel Kallis Newman Gifts, 1997, Accession ID: 1997.382.38); photo © The Metropolitan Museum of Art http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/190035112

Eadweard Muybridge: Obstacle Jump, collotype, 1872/1885; from Animal Locomotion (Paris, Musée d’Orsay); Photo credit: Réunion des Musées Nationaux/Art Resource, NY

Anton Giulio Bragaglia: The Smoker—The Match—The Cigarette, gelatin silver print, 118×145 mm, 1911 (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gilman Collection, Gift of The Howard Gilman Foundation, 2005, Accession Number: 2005.100.247); image © 2013 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/SIAE, Rome (reproduction, including downloading of works is prohibited by copyright laws and international conventions without the express written permission of Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York)

White Island Light, Isles of Shoals, NH, Detroit Photographic Co., photomechanical print (postcard), c. 1901 (Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division)

Jacob August Riis: Bandit’s Roost, 59 1/2 Mulberry Street (The Museum of the City of New York); photo credit: The Museum of the City of New York/Art Resource, NY

El Lissitzky: The Constructor, self-portrait, gelatin silver print, 107×118 mm, 1924 (London, Victoria and Albert Museum, Inv.: PH142-1985); photo credit: V&A Images, London/Art Resource, NY

Man Ray: Untitled ‘rayograph’, silver-salt print, 222×171 mm, from Les Champs délicieux (Paris, 1922), pl. II (Paris, Pompidou, Musée Nationale d’Art Moderne); © 2007 Man Ray Trust/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, photo credit: CNAC/MNAM/Dist. Réunion des Musées Nationaux/Art Resource, NY

Ellen Auerbach and Grete Stern: Hat and Gloves, black-and-white photograph, 1932 (Jerusalem, The Israel Museum); photo credit: The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel/The Bridgeman Art Library International

Ansel Adams: Roy Takeno reading paper in front of office, gelatin silver print, 1943 (Washington, D.C., Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Call No. LOT 10479–7, no. 2); courtesy of the Library of Congress

August Sander: Viennese Jockey, gelatin-silver print, 289×206 mm, 1929 (New York, Museum of Modern Art); © 2007 Die Photographische Sammlung/SK Stiftung Kultur–August Sander Archiv Köln/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, photo © Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by SCALA/Art Resource, NY

Dorothea Lange: Migrant Mother (destitute pea pickers, mother of seven children, age 32, Nipomo, CA.), black and white photograph from one nitrate negative, 101.6×127 mm, 1936; photo courtesy of Library of Congress, LC-DIG-fsa-8b29516, artwork in the public domain

Ansel Adams: School children, Manzanar, California, gelatin silver print, 310×204mm, c. 1943 (Collection Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona); © 2013 The Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust

Edward J. Steichen: The Family of Man, installation view of the exhibition, Museum of Modern Art, New York, January 24–May 8, 1955 (The Museum of Modern Art Photographic Archive); photo: Rolf Petersen/digital image © The Museum of Modern Art. Licensed by SCALA/Art Resource, NY

Héctor García: Maestro Golpeado (image of a sequence of a beating during the Vallejista Movement), Av. de la República, Mexico City,gelatin silver print, 135 mm, 6 Sept 1958 (Private collection, Fundación María y Héctor García A.C.); D.R. 2014 Héctor García

Raghu Rai: Burial of an unknown child, Bhopal, December 1984; image © Raghu Rai/Magnum Photos

Mariko Mori: Esoteric Cosmos (Pure Land), glass with photo interlayer, overall: 3.05×6.1×0.02 m, 1996–8 (Los Angeles County Museum of Art, gift of William J. Bell in honor of the museum’s 40th anniversary (M.2005.136.4a-e); digital image © 2013 Museum Associates/LACMA. Licensed by Art Resource, NY

Joseph Kosuth: One and Three Chairs, wood folding chair, photograph of chair and photographic enlargement of dictionary definition of chair, chair 378×822×530 mm, photo panel 914×613 mm, text panel 613×522 mm, 1965 (New York, Museum of Modern Art); © 2007 Joseph Kosuth/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, photo © Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by SCALA/Art Resource, NY

Jeff Wall: Dead Troops Talk (a vision after an ambush of a Red Army patrol, near Moqor, Afghanistan, winter 1986), transparency in lightbox, 2.3×4.2 m, 1992; image courtesy of the artist

Gordon Parks: American Gothic, Washington, DC, 1942, gelatin silver print, 254×203 mm, 1942 (New York, The Gordon Parks Foundation); Photograph by Gordon Parks/Courtesy and © The Gordon Parks Foundation

Etienne-Jules Marey: Untitled (Man Beginning to Run), gelatin silver print, 60×416 mm, 1890–1900 (New York, Museum of Modern Art); photo © The Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by Scala/Art Resource, NY

Nadar: Aerial View of Paris, c. 1868 (Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris); photo credit: Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, France/Archives Charmet/The Bridgeman Art Library International

Roger Fenton: The valley of the shadow of death, photographic print, salted paper, 280×360 mm, 1855 (Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division)

Henry Peach Robinson: The Lady of Shalott, albumen print from three negatives, 1860–61; photo credit: Gernsheim Collection, Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin

Jacob August Riis: “How the other half lives” in a crowded Hebrew district, Lower East Side, New York City, photographic print on stereo card, c. 1907 (Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division)

Sunil Gupta: Untitled #7, from the series Sun City, ink jet print, 1×0.75 m, (Edition 2/7); courtesy of the artist and sepiaEYE