In an effort to document the people behind many of world's iconic photographs from the past century, San Diego-based photographer Tim Mataoni has released "Behind Photographs: Archiving Photographic Legends."

The 150-page book includes a series of 20x24-inch Polaroid portraits of photographic legends like Steve McCurry, Joyce Tenneson and Arthur Levine.

According to Mantoani — who shot more than 150 of these portraits in the last five years — at a time where everyone and anyone can easily be a photographer, he feels the need to help people understand that iconic photos don't just happen.