POWER OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Images that shook and changed world opinions

This are just a few of the the images that shook, touched and helped changed the World's opinion...

The photograph taken by Nilufer Demir of a Turkish police officer carrying the lifeless body of Aylan Kurdi on a beach near the Turkish resort of Bodrum has become the catalyst for action as Europe's migrant and refugee crisis deepens. Nilufer Demir, a photographer from Turkish news agency Dogan, told broadcaster CNN Turk: "When I realised there was nothing to do to bring that boy back to life I thought I had to take his picture...to show the tragedy." She added, "I hope the impact this photo has created will help bring a solution."

1989 Tiananmen Square protest by Jeff Widener
The Chinese government sent tanks to brutally kill hundreds of workers, students and children in a crackdown on the protest at Tiananmen Square. A man stood bravely in protest in front of the tanks. As TIME magazine reported it, he "revived the world's image of courage". It is when history disguises itself as allegory that the camera writes it best."

The Falling Man is a photograph taken by Associated Press photographer Richard Drew of a man falling from the North Tower of the World Trade Center during the September 11 attacks in New York City in 2001. The subject of the image, whose identity remains uncertain, was one of the people trapped on the upper floors of the skyscraper who jumped to escape the fire and smoke.

South African photojournalist Kevin Carter was the recipient of a Pulitzer Prize for his photographs depicting the famine in Sudan. In March 1993, while on a trip to Sudan, Carter was preparing to photograph a starving toddler trying to reach a feeding centre when a hooded vulture landed nearby. Carter committed suicide three months after winning the Pulitzer Prize.

Pictures of torture at Abu Ghraib prison
A series of "trophy" images famously revealed by the United States Army Criminal Investigation Command in 2004, exposed abuse and humiliation of Iraqi inmates by a group of US soldiers.

1972 Kim Phuc in a napalm attack in South Vietnam by Nick Ut
Nick Ut's photograph of five children running in terror from an accidental napalm attack was widely published around the world, and crystallised in people's mind's the grim injustices of the Vietnam war. The war was heavily reported on and historians believe that images, particularly this one, had a huge impact at home, resulting in violent anti-war protests, a world-wide campaign for peace, and even contributing to the end of the war.

1936 Loyalist Militiaman at the Moment of Death by Robert Capa
This picture caused a stir when it was published in French magazine Vu, and, it has been argued, even helped strengthen the Republican cause. Some regarded it as a symbol of anti-Fascism, others as a more universal anti-war statement. Either way, the political implications of photography were fast being realised. Since the 1970s, there have been doubts about its authenticity due to its location, the identity of its subject, and the discovery of staged photographs taken at the same time and place.

1961 Hans Conrad Schumann jumping into West Berlin by Peter Leibing
Capturing the moment of a soldier risking his life to escape from the communist Eastern Block by leaping over the barbed wire, this picture summed up the desperation of the Cold War.

1855 Valley of the Shadow of Death by Roger Fenton
Fenton is widely regarded as the first war photographer. Unable to take pictures of battle, due to the necessary exposure time needed to create a photograph in the 1850s, Fenton arranged cannon balls across a barren landscape. This metaphorical and eerily empty image demonstrated that the photograph could be as thoughtful and affecting as a poem, even on the battlefield.

This photo taken in 1930 shows the lynching of two young black men, Thomas Shipp and Abe Smith, who were beaten and hung from a tree in the courthouse square in Marion, Indiana. The two men were rounded up by police following the fatal shooting of a white man. Local photographer Lawrence Beitler took what would become one of the most iconic photographs in the struggle for civil rights in the US. The photograph also helped inspire the poem and song "Strange Fruit" written by Abel Meeropol — and performed by Billie Holiday.

1945 Nagasaki, taken by the U.S. Air Force
Proof of man's ability to wreak destruction on a vast scale; the image of the mushroom cloud, captured here as 80,000 people were killed in one blow, is imprinted on the collective imagination.

Photograph taken by Dorothea Lange when working for the Farm Security Administration (FSA) as part of Roosevelt's New Deal. The FSA produced some of the most remarkable social documentary photographs of the 20th century in their attempt to produce an encyclopaedic record of American life between 1935 and 1944, employing such photographers as Dorothea Lange, Jack Delano and Ben Shahn. 

 

 

 

 

Source: The Telegraph