Lunch atop a Skyscraper – is a famous photograph taken by Charles C. Ebbets during construction of the GE Building at Rockefeller Center in 1932. The photograph depicts 11 men eating lunch, seated on a girder with their feet dangling hundreds of feet above the New York City streets. Man at the right with bottle in his hand is Gusti Popovic, sawyer from Eastern Slovakia – Spiš. He sent this photo in 1932 as a postcard to his wife to Slovakia with words: “Don’t worry my dear Mariska, as you see I’m always OK with my bottle. Yours Gusti.” (Slovak: “Nič še ty neboj, moja milá Mariška, jak vidziš, ta ja furt s fľašečku. Tvoj Gusti.”)

Tank Man, or the Unknown Rebel – is the nickname of an anonymous man who became internationally famous when he was videotaped and photographed during the Tiananmen Square protests on June 5, 1989. Several photographs were taken of the man, who stood in front of a column of Chinese Type 59 tanks, preventing their advance. The most widely reproduced version of the photograph was taken by Jeff Widener, from the sixth floor of the Beijing Hotel.

General Nguyen Ngoc Loan executing a Viet Cong prisoner in Saigon – Nguyễn Văn Lém (died 1 February 1968 in Saigon) was a member of the Viet Cong who was summarily executed in Saigon during the Tet Offensive. The execution was captured on film by photojournalist Eddie Adams, and the momentous image became a symbol of the hostility of war.

Hand of God goal – was scored as the result of an illegal (but unpenalised) handball by Diego Maradona in the quarter-final match of the 1986 FIFA World Cup between England and Argentina, played on 22 June 1986 in Mexico City’s Estadio Azteca. Argentina won 2–1 and for some English people the legacy of this event perhaps best symbolizes the rivalry between the two teams, and is usually mentioned whenever the two sides meet.

Anti-Vietnam War – Jan Rose Kasmir confronts the National Guard outside the Pentagon during the 1967 anti-Vietnam War (Marc Riboud’s famous photograph). This is a very iconic picture for many reasons as it totally symbolized the hippy creed of love overcoming all adversity and conflict.

Twickenham Streaker – Twenty-five-year-old Australian Michael O’Brien was the first known streaker at a major sporting event when on April 20, 1974, he ran out naked onto the ground of an England vs. France Rugby Union match at Twickenham. The photograph (by Ian Bradshaw) of O’Brien captured by the police became one of the most famous photographs of a streaker activity.

V–J day in Times Square – perhaps the most famous photograph by Alfred Eisenstaedt, is of an American sailor kissing a young woman on V-J Day in Times Square on August 14, 1945, that was originally published in Life magazine. Because Eisenstaedt was photographing rapidly changing events during the V-J celebrations he didn’t get a chance to get names and details. The photograph does not clearly show the faces of either kisser and several people have laid claim to being the subjects.

D-Day landings – Robert Capa (born in Budapest as Endre Ernő Friedmann) was a 20th century combat photographer who covered five different wars: the Spanish Civil War, the Second Sino-Japanese War, World War II across Europe, the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, and the First Indochina War. His most famous work occurred on June 6, 1944 (D-Day) when he swam ashore with the second assault wave on Omaha Beach. He was armed with two Contax II cameras mounted with 50 mm lenses and several rolls of spare film. Capa took 106 pictures in the first couple of hours of the invasion. However, a staff member at Life made a mistake in the darkroom; he set the dryer too high and melted the emulsion in the negatives. Only eleven frames in total were recovered.

The Falling Soldier – another photograph by Robert Capa. From 1936 to 1939, he was in Spain, photographing the horrors of the Spanish Civil War. In 1936 he became known across the globe for a photo he took on the Cordoba Front of a Loyalist Militiaman who had just been shot and was in the act of falling to his death. Because of his proximity to the victim and the timing of the capture, there was a long controversy about the authenticity of this photograph. A Spanish historian identified the dead soldier as Federico Borrell García, from Alcoi (Alicante).

Tennis Girl – is a hugely popular iconic poster. It shows a young woman from behind walking towards the net of a tennis court with a tennis racquet in her right hand and her left hand reaching behind lifting her short tennis dress, showing she is not wearing any underwear. The photograph was taken by Martin Elliott in September 1976 and features then-18-year-old Fiona Butler, his girlfriend at the time.

The self-immolation of Thich Quang Duc – Hòa thượng Thích Quảng Ðức was a Vietnamese Mahayana Buddhist monk who burned himself to death at a busy Saigon road intersection on June 11, 1963. Thích Quảng Đức was protesting the persecution of Buddhists by South Vietnam’s Ngô Đình Diệm administration. Photos of his self-immolation were circulated widely across the world and brought attention to the policies of the Diệm regime. Malcolm Browne won a Pulitzer Prize for his iconic photo of the monk’s death.

Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima – is a historic photograph taken on February 23, 1945, by Joe Rosenthal. It depicts five United States Marines and a U.S. Navy corpsman raising the flag of the United States atop Mount Suribachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II. The photograph was extremely popular, being reprinted in thousands of publications.

Some of the setup shots

Lego recreation of famous photographs by Balakov

This post is only an illustrative summary of iconic pictures with their pairs of Balakov’s Lego figure pictures which are reconstructing those famous moments. The post is served to give respect for the photographers and to Balakov for their work. All images are copyrights of their respective owners.