Selected Photograph # 3

Probably the best known image taken by Henri Cartier-Bresson, Behind the Gare St. Lazare transforms a seemingly unimportant and mundane action:  someone trying to jump over a puddle of water, into one of the most iconic images of the Twentieth Century. Bresson managed to capture the split-second before the heel touches the water, perfectly capturing what he liked to call "The Decisive Moment".

Henri Cartier-Bresson. Behind the Gare St. Lazare. Paris, 1932.

The original title for the photo was Derrière la gare de Saint-Lazare, and it was taken in 1932 in Paris. Saint-Lazare is the second most busiest train station in Paris, handling over a quarter of a million passengers each day. Bresson, in his usual matter-of-fact tone, explained: "There was a plank fence around some repairs behind the Gare Saint-Lazare train station. I happened to be peeking through a gap in the fence with my camera at the moment the man jumped".

Selected Photograph # 2

This photograph was taken in 1936, during the Great Depression in The United States. It's titled: "Migrant Mother" and was produced by American photographer Dorothea Lange. In the photo, we see one of the thousands of restless laborers that roamed every corner of the States at the time, searching for a way to make a living. With her left hand she holds a small child on her lap, while two other children rest their heads on her shoulders. 

Dorothea Lange. Migrant Mother. Nipomo, California. 1936.

During the Great Depression, President Roosevelt had commissioned a group of photographers all over the country to document the awful conditions of people who were not profiting from New Deal politics. The produced pictures, would hopefully motivate employers in industrial areas.

This photo is one of the most recognized and famous images in photographic "literature". Only a handful of photographs have been published more frequently. "It embodies the self-confidence of a country whose spirit cannot be broken, even under adverse circumstances". 

Source.

Selected Photograph # 1

This photograph is the recipient of the first-ever Pulitzer Prize awarded for Photography in the year 1942. It was taken by Detroit News photographer Milton Brooks, during the 1941 workers strike at a Ford manufacturing plant. It's titled "Ford Strikers Riot" and it depicts a worker/striker beating a strikebreaker with his fist, while the latter tries to protect himself.

Milton Brooks. Ford Strikers Riot. 1941.

Brooks later described the incident as follows: "I took the picture quickly, hid the camera under my coat and ducked into the crowd. A lot of people would have liked to wreck that picture."

The jurors that awarded the Pulitzer Prize to Brooks that year for Outstanding News Photography said that: "This brutal picture comes closest to the category of horror pictures of which, of course, a considerable number are included in the nominations... It sums up much of the labor history of 1941". 

Source