The Rise of Photography on the NY Times Front Page

At first, it was pages after pages of boring black print over white newsprint. As the advent of image printing came about, the boring chronology was suddenly punctuated by images, albeit in monochrome. Then after a long gestation, suddenly color images bloomed. The front page of one of the oldest running dailies in the world burst into life:

This very innovative video by Josh Begley features all of the front pages of the New York Times since 1852. It’s in some ways a tribute to photography itself. It documents how over the years photography has successfully shaped the front page of one of the leading newspapers in the world.

photography changes through history

The New York Times was one of the last newspapers to adopt color photography. If you look closely, the first color page appears at 00:48, with the corresponding date being October 16, 1997. The image was that of Tony Fernandez celebrating his 11th inning home run that saw the Cleveland Indians sail into the World Series.

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