Why are some photos so much more powerful and affecting than others? Val Williams, director of the Photography and Archive Research Centre at the London College of Communication, examines 80 outstanding images here, from photographers like Alfred Stieglitz, Weegee, Margaret Bourke-White, Ansel Adams, Rineke Dijkstra, Gillian Wearing, and Martin Parr. Published in Britain as What Makes Great Photography, the book highlights elements that distinguish each of these images—composition, color, visual texture, and fidelity to the subject—as well as the defining qualities of various eras in genres like portraiture, landscape, photojournalism, and social documentary.