Summiting Everest: How a Photograph Celebrates Teamwork at the Top of the World

The summit of Mount Everest—the highest place on Earth. Could it be conquered? Could a climber literally stand on top of the world? No one had ever reached the summit and returned alive. Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay wanted to be the first. Not far from the top, before their final hours of climbing, team photographer Alfred Gregory snapped a picture of Hillary and Norgay, with the imposing Himalayas spread out behind them. It was the highest photograph anyone in human history had ever taken. With a click of his camera shutter in May 1953, Gregory opened up a hidden world for the rest of humanity to share.