Evan Vucci’s Trump photo will define (and perhaps shape) history

History was made in Pennsylvania last night as much by the attempted assassination of Donald Trump as by Evan Vucci of the Associated Press. Vucci’s image shows a presidential candidate, blood from a bullet wound on his face, his fist raised defiantly, with the US flag behind him in the sky. Anyone in my line of work would have instantly recognised that this is a once-in-a-generation photograph – certain to becoming one of the defining images of American history.

Several bullets had been fired. More could have been forthcoming, but Vucci didn’t take cover. He was there in the thick of it, recording the moment. It’s said that much of photography is about luck, being at the right place at the right time. Perhaps so, but the best photographers tend to be lucky rather a lot. Vucci’s picture is photojournalism at its most powerful.