As a photographer, I have exquisitely bad timing: In nearly 23 years of marriage, my wife points out, I have only taken about 10 pictures of her with her eyes open. Instagram helps make my images look better, but it can’t fix bad timing.

In my job, I get to hang out with some of the best photographers in the world, and over the years, shooters like Yuri Kozyrev and Franco Pagetti have patiently explained to be what makes a good picture — composition, lighting, the whole nine yards. I’ve also looked over the shoulders of TIME’s photo editors, the best in the business, and learned a few things.

But photography is a mystical art, and for all my knowledge, I could never take a great picture.

Until now.

The image you see here, taken in Cairo last week, is the best picture I have taken. It may be the best picture I will ever take. If you will indulge a little arrogance, it is perfectly composed, perfectly lit, and perfectly captures a moment of high drama.

It was a fluke.

It happened as TIME Managing Editor Rick Stengel, photo editor Patrick Witty, Cairo correspondent Ashraf Khalil and I were making our way to Tahrir Square. We’d heard that the protests against President Mohamed Morsi’s recent emergency decree were growing, and there was a sense of something big about to happen. As we turned into one of the entrances to the square, we stopped to watch a street battle between young men (some mere boys) and the Egyptian riot police. This was taking place some 200 yards from us, so we felt relatively safe. I pulled out my iPhone, and started taking some shots.

Suddenly, things changed. The young men turned away from the police and started running up the street, directly toward us. It took me a moment to realize why: the police had started to fire tear-gas canisters into the crowd.  Ashraf and I have been gassed enough times over the years to know what to do next: get the heck out of there. Patrick was a few yards away, out of the firing line.

I grabbed Rick and pushed. Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw the smoke trail of a canister coming in our direction. I told Rick to close his eyes, and kept shoving him through a panicking crowd. There was no strategic thinking going on, we just needed to get out.

We did, but not before we’d taken a blast of the gas in our faces. All things considered, it wasn’t the most noxious gas I’d encountered: Ashraf agreed it was a mild dose. (The really nasty stuff can burn skin.) By the time we got to the square, the effects of the gas were already clearing.

It wasn’t until much later that I looked at the pictures I’d taken, and realized that I had somehow captured the moment the gas canister landed at our feet. I have no recollection of taking that picture, but there it was, perfectly framed and lit. Instagram helped sharpen it up. Rick and Patrick liked it, and the photo editors back in NYC decided to run it in the magazine.

So there it is: the best picture I’ve ever taken, published in TIME Magazine, no less. And it’s a total, utter fluke.

— Bobby Ghosh, Editor-at-Large

(Follow Bobby on Instagram @ghoshworld)

(Photo courtesy of Bonni Benrubi Gallery)

Last Thursday, gallerist Bonni Benrubi passed away after a long battle with cancer. A pioneer in the New York photo community, Benrubi was committed to exclusively showing photography for the past 25 years. A champion of many young artists’ work, she fostered the careers of numerous photographers who have appeared in the pages of TIME, including Gillian Laub.

“When Bonni took me on as an artist, I was so young, just out of school,” says Laub, who has been represented by the gallery since she was 24. “It was such an honor and so encouraging to have someone like her have such belief in my work. Bonni was one of the strongest people I knew. She was an inspiration to me as a woman and human being — so passionate about both her work and family.”

And Laub says she’ll also remember the advice that Benrubi gave her: “Keep doing the work that is close to your heart and moves you emotionally. It may not be trendy, but humanity doesn’t need to follow trends.”

Pictured: Outhouse, Finger Mountain Wayside, 2009. Mile 173.

In a place where Walmart and McDonald’s are now as ubiquitous as sourdoughs and homesteaders, photographer Ben Huff’s project on the Dalton Highway embodies the confounding nature of America’s 49th state. See more on LightBox.

The cover of Americans by Christopher Morris, published this month by Steidl

TIME contract photographer Christopher Morris sought to make an anthropological study of America—not for this week, or for this past election cycle—but a body of work that future generations could look back on to get a sense of the country’s mood.

See an exclusive interview on LightBox here.

Nov. 26, 2012. Police officers are sprayed with milk by European milk farmers during a demonstration outside the European Parliament in Brussels. (Photo: Geert Vanden Wijngaert—AP)

From protests in Egypt and life in the aftermath of the Gaza conflict to Myanmar’s refugee camps and volcanic lava spilling into the ocean in Hawaii, TIME presents the best pictures of the week.

See more on LightBox.

A Bahraini man rides a horse in Manama, Bahrain. (Photo: Hasan Jamali—AP)

From protests in Egypt and life in the aftermath of the Gaza conflict to Myanmar’s refugee camps and volcanic lava spilling into the ocean in Hawaii, TIME presents the best pictures of the week.

See more on LightBox.

life:

“Really. She was divine to look at, and to photograph. She had that wonderful face, a great body, those amazing eyes — just a beautiful young woman, and a lot of fun to be around.”

Here, on the anniversary of her Nov. 29, 1981, death, LIFE.com presents a selection of photographs made by Bill Ray in 1963 — a time in the 25-year-old Wood’s career when she had made the leap from actress to genuine movie star and, more importantly, to formidable Hollywood player.

Caption from LIFE. “Gowned in satin, bathed by spots, fussed over by attendants, Natalie glows with the glamor that a true star, and the movies themselves, has never lost.”

TONIGHT: “A Woman’s War” Artist talk with photographer Elizabeth Herman at United Photo Industries Gallery in Dumbo, 7:30 pm. For more information click here.

Calling all photobook fans: Andy Adams is giving away a copy of Problemata Physica this week — Featuring 17 photographers and an essay by Andy himself. Interested in getting a copy of the zine? Follow on this way.