Isaac Sligh

With pictures of presidents, war, triumph and more, photographers have captured pivotal moments of our history and altered the country’s public consciousness. ‘Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima’ (1945). Joe Rosenthal/Associated Press Photographic images can inform, inspire, provoke and move us. They can change the course of history, give visible form to an abstract concept, and define our image of ourselves. Throughout American history, photography has done all these things.

Giambettino Cignaroli, Mozart in Verona, 1770, Oil on canvas, Private collection. Exhibition note Purchase this and other timeless New Criterion essays in our hard-copy reprint series. “No corrections . . . not one!” So says the composer Antonio Salieri in a famous scene in the movie Amadeus, before dropping Mozart’s first drafts onto the floor in rapture.

The Who are our last great rock ’n’ roll band. More than 60 years after four working-class boys from west London formed a humble R&B combo, the two surviving members look to be hanging up their spurs for good. The Who have named their latest string of engagements – a farewell tour which concluded early this month – “The Song Is Over.” When I caught them in Long Island, rumors of geriatric struggles were soundly put to rest: Pete Townshend, 80, and Roger Daltrey, 81, were in cracking good form.