Pictures that say a thousand words
 

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ul8VgHojN7...9lk/s400/1.jpg

Starving Child Vulture

One photograph that has helped awaken the world about the effects of poverty in Africa is the one above showing a Sudanese child being stalked by a vulture nearby. It is quite obvious that the child was starving to death, while the vulture was patiently waiting for the toddler to die so he can have a good meal.

Nobody knows what happened to the child, who crawled his way to a United Nations food camp. Photographer Kevin Carter won a Pulitzer Prize for this shocking picture, but he eventually committed suicide three months after he took the shot.


http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ul8VgHojN7...YM/s400/15.jpg

Tiananmen Square 1989 A hunger strike by 3,000 students in Beijing had grown to a protest of more than a million as the injustices of a nation cried for reform. For seven weeks the people and the People’s Republic, in the person of soldiers dispatched by a riven Communist Party, warily eyed each other as the world waited. When this young man simply would not move, standing with his meager bags before a line of tanks, a hero was born. A second hero emerged as the tank driver refused to crush the man, and instead drove his killing machine around him. Soon this dream would end, and blood would fill Tiananmen. But this picture had shown a billion Chinese that there is hope.


http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ul8VgHojN7...c/s400/18c.jpg

9/11 Attacks

In the morning September 11, 2001, two hijacked passenger jets crashed into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. This was no accident, but rather a series of attacks done by suicide bombers engaged with the Al-Qaeda terrorist group.

The attacks killed all the passengers on board the hijacked planes, and took away 2,974 innocent lives at the World Trade Center. More than 90 countries lost citizens in the attack, and the stock market was closed for a week. In response to the attacks, the United States government declared a War on Terror, while many other nations strengthened their law enforcement powers to fight terrorism. However, the suicide attacks done by the Al Qaeda terrorists have forever marked a sense of fear not just in America, but in the whole world.


http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ul8VgHojN7...MY/s400/62.jpg

Che Guevara
Photograph of Che Guevara was taken on March 5, 1960 by Alberto Korda at a funeral service for victims of the La Coubre explosion, it was published seven years later. Che Guevara was 31 at the time of the photo.


I did not write these descriptions. Posts limit you to 4 pictures so this is just skimming the surface of what's out there. Feel free to add your contributions.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ul8VgHojN7...Fg/s400/65.jpg

The First Photograph
Known as the World’s First Photograph but actually this is the earliest surviving photograph, c. 1826. It required an eight-hour exposure, which resulted in sunlight on both sides of the buildings.

It represents the view of the courtyard of Niépce’s house at Gras, France, taken from the window of his workroom. On the left side of the image is the pigeon-house (an upper loft in the Niépce family house), to the right of it is a pear-tree with a patch of sky showing through an opening in the branches. In the center of the image is the slanting roof of the barn; the long building behind it is the bake house, with chimney. On the right side of the image is another wing of the house.


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...ra_Sanchez.jpg

Omayra Sánchez [1985]

Red Cross rescue workers had apparently repeatedly appealed to the government for a pump to lower the water level and for other help to free the girl. Finally rescuers gave up and spent their remaining time with her, comforting her and praying with her. She died of exposure after about 60 hours.


http://www.sligocameraclub.org/wp-co...Iwo%20Jima.jpg

U.S. Marines raising the flag on Iwo Jima [1945]

Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima is a historic photograph taken on February 23, 1945, by Joe Rosenthal. It depicts five United States Marines and a U.S. Navy corpsman raising the flag of the United States atop Mount Suribachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II.

The photograph was extremely popular, being reprinted in thousands of publications. Later, it became the only photograph to win the Pulitzer Prize for Photography in the same year as its publication, and ultimately came to be regarded as one of the most significant and recognizable images of the war, and possibly the most reproduced photograph of all times.


http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ul8VgHojN7...xk/s400/10.jpg

Burning Monk

As a protest to the Di?m slow and unreliable reforms in Vietnam, the Buddhist monks have resorted to immolation, such as this Mahayana Buddhist monk, Th?ch Qu?ng Ð?c. Ð?c burned himself alive across the outskirts of Saigon, mainly because of the harshness done by the South Vietnam government to his fellow Buddhist monks.

Ð?c was re-cremated after he burned himself; his heart meanwhile remained in one piece, and because of this he was regarded as a Bodhisattva by the other Buddhist monks and followers. His act of self-immolation increased the pressure on the Di?m administration to implement their reform laws in South Vietnam.

More monks followed Ð?c’s footsteps as well, and later on in November 1963, Di?m was killed by an army coup.

This is one of my favourite pictures/ videos of all time. It really moves me in a way that I cannot really describe... that this one man halted these huge tanks, even if it were only for a fleeting moment, and showed that there is hope and you can resist.

Video footage:

Wow. I'd seen that pic before of course, but watching the video was even more powerful. Watching that guy get up on the tank...yelling inside to the driver gave me chills. Jeez...

Um, regarding Che......

^link's not working bud

Not so much a pinnacle point in history, but a very emotional and powerful picture nonetheless.

http://img.thesun.co.uk/multimedia/a...00_742703a.jpg

It shows Miklós Fehér on the field right after he had suffered a heart attack and died.

If it's some loony conspiracy theory about how Che did this or that, I'm not interested. I posted that pic because it's the most reproduced photograph in history and because he was one of the great visionary revolutionaries of the 20th century.

Okay, I understand why you posted it. And it was a great post. Che was still a murderer.

http://www.solarnavigator.net/histor...olf_hitler.jpg

Cunt. Sorry about the language.

http://theformofmoney.blogharbor.com...arChildren.bmp

Chills me to the bone.

A couple from this year (not my descriptions):

http://img.timeinc.net/time/2009/50_.../photos/mj.jpg

A mourner awaits the start of a tribute to Michael Jackson at the Apollo Theater in the neighborhood of Harlem in New York City on June 30.



http://img.timeinc.net/time/2009/50_...e_inaug_09.jpg

Barack Obama waits backstage moments before taking office as the 44th President of the United States on Jan. 20.

My bad, this one.

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6GQRBJwJ37M/Sc...02image019.jpg

Darfur:
http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/859...ted0877272.jpg

I've seen the one with the vulture and baby and I makes me feel ill everytime I see it. I especially love the one about tianamen square as when I visited it my tour guide was very passionate about what had happened in this photo, I never got round to looking anything up though until I seen it just now there.

The second one you posted Jackhammer made me feel indescribable. I got shivers and chills up my spine from the look on those childrens faces. It's a sickening image, yet opens my eyes to how fortunate my life has been.

http://neatorama.cachefly.net/images...dy-alborta.jpg

http://neatorama.cachefly.net/images...ddie-adams.jpg

http://neatorama.cachefly.net/images...ant-mother.jpg
/IMG]

Few problems with the video:
Firstly, if I ever came across a t-shirt with "Hitler ist mein homeboy" on it I'd be very tempted to get it. Especially if it had such an awesome picture on it. Then I'd remember I don't wear gimmicky t-shirts these days and pass it over, but was a time.
Secondly, it seems to spend half it's time whining about how evil Mao was which is quite frankly irrelevant to the point.
Thirdly, it ignores the fact that most people who wear a Che T are raving idiots more focussed on what's fashionable than having any knowledge about it.

Even so I still consider the wearing of a Che t-shirt and general respect for Che is not so incredibly bad, history is riddle with people doing the wrong things but still having impressive traits of character. The Roman Empire is looked back on as an enterprise of glory and majesty but throughout it's history if it wasn't busy subjugating, invading and enslaving other lands it's leaders were busy assassinating each other to take power; the movie 300 is a tale of Spartans fighting for freedom against the Persian horde ... so that they can go home, train as soldiers and wait for their slaves to finish in the field so they can cook them up a feast. Che grew up in South America observing the devastating effects that capitalism was having on the impoverished and the destruction it caused. He went on to do something about it and despite being heavily asthmatic he lead from the front (which is how he was picked up in Bolivia) and was absolutely determined to carry out his convictions, incredibly confident and at peace with himself. While people condemn him with his record of executions ordered (which absolutely pale in comparison compared to the other big bads mentioned; Mao, Stalin, Hitler) they merrily forget that the Cuban revolution usurped Batista a U.S. backed dictator of 7 years who had taken power by coup and actively propagated organised crime in Cuba, along with systematic torture and execution. Some years before that Batista had effectively controlled the country through puppet Presidents after an earlier coup.

Che did exceptionally wicked things but at the same time had an inspirational character, exceptional ideals (a unified South America, stamping out the class divide caused by capitalism). He wasn't some cackling megalomaniac such as Hitler or Stalin, the executions were endemic of his absolutist approach to the revolution and the situation within which Cuba existed. To focus only on that aspect of his existence is as bad as the people who wear a t-shirt with his face on just 'cus it looked cool.

As for photos, BTown posted what I consider to be the better photo of Che so we'll see what I can come up with.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3062/...98d4ac12_o.jpg

Mostly anything by Banksy is generally pretty decent. His stuff on the Palestinian side of the Israeli defence "fence" is exceptionally poignant.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...alling_Man.jpg

In my view the picture to encapsulate the World Trade Centre events.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...soGuernica.jpg

Picasso's Guernica, so brutishly simplistic at first glance it's almost reminiscent of a stone age wall painting but this only enhances the emotion portrayed and belies the complicated construction of the piece. A visceral depiction of the first use of planes bombing civilian targets. Which of course opened up the way for stuff like:

http://timesonline.typepad.com/photo..._afterbomb.jpg

Bienvenue Nagasaki.

I actually did a whole photography project on this picture back in school. Still one of my favorites.

pictures of this guy never cease to amaze me
Robert Pershing Wadlow: Tallest man ever.
http://s3.amazonaws.com/readers/socy...3/129439_0.jpg

Chernobyl disaster.
http://www.solcomhouse.com/images/111chexp.gif

The Ku Klux Klan
http://www.nickryan.net/images/kkk.jpg

The 2005 Tsunami.
http://img510.imageshack.us/img510/1826/19013481.jpg

Martin Luther King's I have a dream speech.
http://media.wktv.com/images/mlk_historical_speech.jpg

Very famous photo. One of my favourites.
http://files.coloribus.com/files/pae...ew_600_463.jpg

Holocaust
http://scrapetv.com/News/News%20Page...s-in-bunks.jpg

Anne Frank, I feel like she is a massive part of history. Her face deserves to be in this thread, even though it isn't as shocking/significant as others. The girl herself means alot.
http://scrapetv.com/News/News%20Page...anne-frank.jpg

http://www.lessignets.com/signetsdia...onChapman9.jpg

That picture never fails to send shivers down my spine. That's Lennon next to his killer Mark Chapman few minutes before his death.

And then the guy in the middle needed the loo.

I would see the difficulty if it was a line of women. :D

I feel dizzy just looking at that photo... I hate heights.

http://theeriegreen.files.wordpress....80915_ssh2.jpg

Close to home...

lol

http://fab4milwaukee.com/Beatles.Boarding.gif

Beatlemania begins.

http://dreamlife.files.wordpress.com...largephoto.jpg

A personal favourite, Solskjaer winning the champions league.

http://www.globalgallery.com/prod_im...00/esc-e55.jpg

http://staceycavin.files.wordpress.c...lex-grey21.jpg

Argentina vs England (1986)

http://iconicphotos.files.wordpress....a-_1496943.jpg

Oh yeah!!

Happiest single moment of my life :) Saw this and had to watch the highlights again!

I still remember the commentary, I was really young when it happened but it was so special. I remember 2008 fondly as well, but 99 was THE year. So you're a red, where abouts you from?

West Wales, bit of a trek to get to OT :(


That eye is haunting
http://www.enginelounge.com/wp-conte...assa-Crash.jpg

I know someone from Cardiff who comes up when he can. I've been a season ticket holder for 10 years. Each year the price gets more and more ridiculous. :(

Let's break the omgsrs tone a bit here:

http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/50...lchairAtak.jpg

I drew that for part of an art profolio on eyes, I had no idea it was well known, i thought it was just a random eye of an art teacher because it didnt have the skull! :)

Ah, Alex Grey FTW. That's probably one of my favourites.

I love this one, too:

http://www.theroaringlions.com/uploa...ey_writing.jpg

When this came out it was a big thing. Massive hype surrounding this, we rake in like £20,000,000 a year from this!
http://amywillis.files.wordpress.com...loch-ness1.jpg

Yves Rossy, nicknamed the "Jetman" in one of his invention's first flights
http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/772/flyingx.png