Andre
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Valley of the Shadow of Death (1855) (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.
Tiananmen Square protest (1989) (Jeff Widener)
The government sent tanks to brutally kill hundreds of workers, students and children in a crackdown on the protest at Tiananmen Square. A small, unknown, unexceptional figure 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.
Extra: There is a 80-minute Discovery documentary about the Tiananmen protests, this man is involved too
A Polish disturbed children (1948)
Teresa, a child in a residence for disturbed children, grew up in a concentration camp. She has drawn a picture of "home" on the blackboard.
Martin Luther King Junior Washington DC speech (1963)
At the climax of his “I Have A Dream” speech, Martin Luther King Jr. raises his arm on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and calls out for deliverance with the electrifying words of an old Negro spiritual hymn, “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!“.
Vietnamese war horror, Saigon (1968)
SThe Saigon fire department, which has the job of collecting the dead from city streets, has just placed a girl, killed by U.S. helicopter fire, in the back of their truck, where her brother finds her.
A dying toddler about to get eaten (1994) (Kevin Carter)
This Pulitzer Prize-winning picture of a vulture waiting to feed on a dying toddler in Sudan summed up the cruelty of the famine in Sudan. It also, famously, highlighted the plight of the photographer; within three months of gaining recognition for this photograph, Kevin Carter committed suicide.
Napalm attack in South Vietnam (1972) (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.
Nagasaki (1945)
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.
Nagasaki on Wikipedia
Segregated Water Fountains in North Carolina (1950) (Elliott Erwitt)
This picture, which points out the injustice of social segregation, became a well-recognised symbol for the need for change. Looking at it now speaks volumes about how much has changed since then.
The photograph that ended a war but ruined a life, "Murder of a Vietcong by Saigon Police Chief" (1968) (Eddie Adams)
"Still photographs are the most powerful weapon in the world," AP photojournalist Eddie Adams once wrote. A fitting quote for Adams, because his 1968 photograph of an officer shooting a handcuffed prisoner in the head at point-blank range not only earned him a Pulitzer Prize in 1969, but also went a long way toward souring Americans’ attitudes about the Vietnam War.
For all the image’s political impact, though, the situation wasn’t as black-and-white as it’s rendered. What Adams’ photograph doesn’t reveal is that the man being shot was the captain of a Vietcong "revenge squad" that had executed dozens of unarmed civilians earlier the same day. Regardless, it instantly became an icon of the war’s savagery and made the official pulling the trigger – General Nguyen Ngoc Loan – its iconic villain.
Sadly, the photograph’s legacy would haunt Loan for the rest of his life. Following the war, he was reviled where ever he went. After an Australian VA hospital refused to treat him, he was transferred to the United States, where he was met with a massive (though unsuccessful) campaign to deport him. He eventually settled in Virginia and opened a restaurant but was forced to close it down as soon as his past caught up with him. Vandals scrawled "we know who you are" on his walls, and business dried up.
Adams felt so bad for Loan that he apologized for having taken the photo at all, admitting, "The general killed the Vietcong; I killed the general with my camera."
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