"It was important to step back and understand that cameras didn't make these photos, photographers made these photos," Mantoani told WIRED. "Without these people and their understanding of photography, these moments would not be there for us to understand and appreciate over the course of time."
To create the images Mantoani rented a massive 20x24 Polaroid camera made in the 1970's to shoot legendary music photographer, Jim Marshall and sports photojournalist, Michael Zagaris. "I asked each of them to bring in a few of their most iconic or favorite shots and I made my first portraits," Mantoani wrote Business Insider.
Here are a few from Mantoani's portraits republished from "Behind Photographs" with permission:
Girl In Afghanistan
Steve McCurry: Peshawar, Pakistan, 1984. I looked for this girl for 17 years and finally found her in 2002. Her name is Sharbat Gula.
Beijing 1989
Jeff Widener: Beijing, 1989. Widener holds his image of the Tank Man confronting a column of tanks in Tiananmen Square during the Tiananmen Square protests.
9/11
Lyle Owerko: New York, 2001. No one knew such beautiful warm day would serve as the backdrop to one of the most painful and confusing events to the heart of mankind. This picture is one small part of such a huge event that ties the threads of thousands of stories and millions of people together.
Brown Bear
Thomas Mangelsen: Brooks Falls Katmai National Park, Alaska, 1988. I pre-visualized this possibility (of an image like this) from watching documentary films about the bears at Katmai and seeing a photograph in Alaska Air Magazine of a group of bears here at the falls.
The Beatles
Harry Benson: New York, 1964. Beatles Manager, Brian Epstein, had just told them they were number one in America and that I was coming with them to New York.
Ali vs. Liston
Neil Leifer: Lewiston, Maine, 1965.
John Lennon
Bob Gruen: New York, 1974. John Lennon asked me to come to his penthouse apartment on the east side of New York to take pictures for the cover of his 'Walls + Bridges' album. After we took a series of portraits for the record cover we took some informal shots to use for publicity. I asked him if he still had the New York City t-shirt I had given him a year earlier and he went a put it on and we made this photo.
Napalm Attack In Vietnam
Nick Ut: Trang Bang Village, 1972. Kim Phuc 9 year-old girl runs naked on a road after being severely burned from South Vietnamese napalm attacks.
To find out more, please visit the Behind Photographs website.