Most Memorable Photos - Part V

James Nachtwey [1992]

This picture was taken in Somalia during the famine. DD featured endless documentaries in those days about the famine, which then seemed to be at a far off place. This picture shows a mother lifting the body of her dead son to carry him to a mass grave for burial. The picture won Nachtwey the World Press Award for 1992. Nachtwey then worked for Magnum, and won 2 awards within 3 years, and later started his own company, VII.

Source: wikipedia, jamesnachtwey.com

Pablo Bartholomew [1984]

This picture is perhaps the icon of grief and greed in the face of modern industrialization at India. The poisonous gas (Methyl Isocynate) leakage at Bhopal's Union Carbide plant, caused the death of this infant, amongst many others. Bartholomew won the World Press Photograph in 1984.

Source: wikipedia, worldpressphoto.org

Mustafa Bozdemir [1983]

This picture was taken during the devastating earthquake in Turkey during 1983. Bozdemir witnessed this woman embracing her dead children while her screams pierced his heart and said it seemed like she thought her love could will them back to life.

Source: worldpressphoto.org, bbc.co.uk

Eddie Adams [1968]

This picture is from the Vietnam war, during 1968. Adams was covering the war for Associated press when he took this picture of police chief General Nguyen Ngoc Loan executing a Vietcong prisoner, Nguyen Van Lem, on a Saigon street, on February 1, 1968, during the opening stages of the Tet Offensive. Adams won the Pulitzer for this picture in 1969.

Adams later said: The general killed the Viet Cong; I killed the general with my camera.

Source: wikipedia

Most Memorable Photos - IV

John Filo [1970]

May 4, 1970 has become a day forever etched into American history. On that day, four Kent State University students were killed and nine students were wounded by National Guardsmen who were called onto the campus in response to protests and demonstrations against the Vietnam War. John Filo was a senior at Kent State working in the student photography lab when the shots rang out just after noon on that day. During the confrontation and ensuing chaos, he photographed a then 14-year-old runaway named Mary Vecchio as she kneeled over the bleeding body of Jeffrey Miller. Filo received the Pulitzer for his photograph while still a student at Kent State.

The photograph in Time-Life library was at some point airbrushed to remove the pole behind Mary, thus raising a storm of controversy about modified pictures in journalism.
Source: cnn.com, wikipedia

Malcolm Browne [1963]

Thích Quảng Ðức, was a Vietnamese Buddhist monk who burned himself to death at a busy Saigon intersection on June 11, 1963. Thích Quảng Ðức was protesting the persecution of Buddhism by South Vietnam's Ngô Đình Diệm administration. The photographer Malcolm W. Browne went on to win the 1963 World Press Photo of the Year for this image. Another reporter that witnessed the event, David Halberstam, remembers "As he burned he never moved a muscle, never uttered a sound".This reminds me of the attempted self immolation by Rajeev Goswami which was front page picture in India Today and others.
Source: wikipedia

Raveendran [1990]

Rajiv Goswami (d. 2004) was a native of India, was notable for his attempted self-immolation while a student at Delhi University in 1990. His action, held in protest against the Prime Minister V.P. Singh's implementation of the Mandal commission's affirmative action recommendations, allegedly inspired a series of self-immolations by other college students and led to a movement against job reservations for Backward Castes in India. He finally gave up politics and started his own business. He continued to suffer from health problems until he died at the age of 33.

It was reported that V.P. Singh instructed Safdarjung hospital that he was not to die under any circumstances. The overdose of medication caused him to suffer kidney and liver problems, to which he succumbed later in 2004. He never took a government job and relied for sustenance on his parents who lived abroad.
Source: wikipedia, hindu, in.rediff, timesofindia, outlookindia

Most Memorable Photos - Part III

William C. Bealle [1958]

So, someone recently commented that I’ve posted pictures depicting only the darker side of humanity. Here is something to lighten things up. This picture taken by Bealle of Washington (D.C) Daily News, shows a policeman patiently reasoning with a 2 year old boy trying to cross the street during a parade. The picture titled “Faith and Confidence”, won the Pulitzer for photography in 1958.

Source: Pulitzer.org

Most Memorable Photos - Part II

Stanley J. Forman [1976]

This picture was shot for the Boston Herald by Stanley J. Forman, in 1976. A fire broke out in Marlborough street and Stanley climbed the firetruck to take this picture. There was universal debate at the grim picture. Despite a great effort the fireman was seconds away from saving their lives. Stanley took this picture but turned away before the young woman Diana Bryant and her godchild Tiare Jones hit the ground. Diana died later that night but broke the fall of Tiare who lived. This controversial picture led Boston authorities (and others worldwide) to re-look at their fire safety codes and improve them. Stanley won the Pulitzer that year, he also happens to be the only photographer to win the Pulitzer in two consecutive years for photojournalism.









Next year he won it again for “Soiling of the Old Glory”, shot near Boston’s city hall, showing Theodore Landsmark, an African-american lawyer who on his way to a case encountered over one hundred and fifty anti-busing youths from South Boston and Charleston protesting the decision to bus in students from Roxbury, an African American suburb.
Souce: Wikipedia



Nick Ut [1972]


This is perhaps the most famous picture from during the Vietnam War. This picture shows Phan Thi Kim Phuc who was aged about 9, running away from her village which was bombed with Napalm. She was screaming “nong qua nong qua” – too hot too hot. After the picture, Nick promptly took her and other children to the hospital . Nick won a Pulitzer and the World Press Photo for 1972. Kim Phuc was treated and grew up to be a doctor and now lives at Canada. She was also awarded as a goodwill ambassador by UNESCO.
Souce: Wikipedia


Oded Balality [2007]

Most of my memorable pictures have been longer back in history, as they keep getting repeatedly published and hence more chance of people seeing them. This picture however is from recent times, at Israel. This picture titled “The Power of One” shows a lone Jewish settler challenging Israeli security officers during clashes that erupted as authorities cleared the West Bank settlement of Amona, east of the Palestinian town of Ramallah. This picture taken in Feb 2006, won Balality the Pulitzer in 2007. This picture reminds me of the great photo at Tiananmen Square, coming next.
Source: Pulitzer.org


Stuart Franklin Magnum [1989]


Tank Man or the Unknown Rebel, the one man who stood in front of advancing tanks during Tiananmen Square protests near Beijing in 1989. He held two bags in each hand and stopped the tanks. In response, the front tank tried to go around the man, but he would step into its way and not let it pass. The tank driver refused to crush the man. He later climbed on the tank and spoke with the driver and asked them to “Go away and stop killing my people”. He was pulled into the crowd by onlookers, Sunday Express claimed the identity of the man as Wang Weilin, a 19 year old student. There are various versions about what happened next, some say he was executed, some say he still lives. Many photo versions of this incident exist, the most popular was shot by Stuart Franklin who won the World Press Award and this photograph was featured in Life’s “100 photos that changed the world”.
Source: wikipedia, life.com

Most Memorable Photos - Part 1

Most of you who will read this know of my love for the lens. This will be a multipart series based on the most memorable pictures through time. This is a personal collection based on my gleanings from Life, Time, National Geographic, Pulitzer prize winners, and some pictures which are great in my opinion. I am really thankful for open-source knowledge through wikipedia.




Nicéphore Niépce’s [1826]

This is perhaps the world oldest photograph. Joseph Nicéphore Niépce’s is noted arguably as the world's photography pioneer. He used to call his technique heliography and used prolonged exposure of 8-20 hours on. He improved the technique with Louis Daguerre. Daguerre used silver bromide plates and his pictures were called Daugerrotypes, I still have one of his shots of a nude lady somewhere in my books at Bhilai.
In this particular picture Joseph exposed the shot between sunrise and sunset, hence there is light on both sides of the building. This technique, due to the long exposure times was not good for photographing people.
Source: Wikipedia



Charles O'Rear [2000]

This is perhaps the most widely seen picture among computer users around the world. This image titled "Bliss", appears as the standard wallpaper in Windows XP. This is a landscape from Napa Valley, California. O'Rear has worked for National Geographic for over 25 years, this one was however taken for a different company. He lives at St. Helena in Napa County. This image inspired Microsoft to start a $200 million ad campaign called, Yes You Can.
Source: Wikipedia

Yasushi Nagao [1960]


This was the assassination of Japanese Socialist Inejiro Asanuma by Otoya Yamaguchi, a japanese ultranationalist student. Photographer Yasushi Nagao won the pulitzer and the world photo awards that year. Just 3 weeks later, in his cell, Otoya mixed a small amount of tooth powder with water and wrote on the wall - Seven lives for my country. Ten thousand years for His Imperial Majesty, the Emperor!..before hanging himself and committing suicide - an act of Owabi.
Source: wikipedia.