40 most powerful photos ever

[Peat]

Interesting list, absolutely gut wrenching some of these

http://www.buzzfeed.com/expresident/most-powerful-photographs-ever-taken

 

[snoopy snoopy dog dog]

The black power, 1968 Olympics photo immediately sprung to mind. As did this one which surprisingly didn't make it on the list:
http://www.doobybrain.com/2009/02/21/napalm-bomb-drop-on-vietnam/

 

[LittleGuy]

That would have made more sense than #15 which I felt was really out of place on the list.

 

[Feicarsinn]

The Vietnam war was the first to be open to modern media, and it's produced the most moving photo's of any war I suppose. I'm surprised neither of these two made it into the list:

 

[big ginger 8]

Numbers 3, 20, 28, 32, and 36 were the most powerful for me.

 

[Peat]

There's a lot of photos that could well have made the list - Kevin Carter's baby and vulture photo for one...

 

[Saintjay]

The black power, 1968 Olympics photo immediately sprung to mind. As did this one which surprisingly didn't make it on the list:
http://www.doobybrain.com/2009/02/21/napalm-bomb-drop-on-vietnam/

Good shout, it was the first one that I thought of. The second never made the list and was the two SAS soldiers on the balcony of the Iranian embassy in 1980. No idea why but I always thought that it was a great picture.

 

[Draggs]

In one of my history textbooks years back there was this picture of a journalist escaping occupied Paris on foot carrying a small child.
I was just a wee lad then, but I thought the picture was incredible. Just had to wonder what was going through his head, and what happened afterwards.
Haven't seen it since, but it really made me think.

Thanks for posting Peat, took a few minutes to go through all these.
Sobering, really.

 

[smartcooky]

The Vietnam war was the first to be open to modern media, and it's produced the most moving photo's of any war I suppose. I'm surprised neither of these two made it into the list:

...and this one

My favourite out of those 40 is the last one, so much to, that it hangs on the wall in my lounge.....

 

[Rhyer]

I though it was a pretty weak list. I was expecting some others like the ones mentioned above and the Sedan child one with the eagle. The photographer of that one killed himself 3 months later because of that.

 

[LittleGuy]

The Vietnam war was the first to be open to modern media, and it's produced the most moving photo's of any war I suppose. I'm surprised neither of these two made it into the list:

The story behind the first picture is little known, but is worth reading. I hate to use wikipedia but don't really have the time to find other sources at the moment...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nguyen_Ngoc_Loan

The photographer Eddie Adams made this statement in Time magazine about the photo, "The general killed the Viet Cong; I killed the general with my camera. Still photographs are the most powerful weapon in the world. People believe them, but photographs do lie, even without manipulation. They are only half-truths ... What the photograph didn't say was, 'What would you do if you were the general at that time and place on that hot day, and you caught the so-called bad guy after he blew away one, two or three American soldiers?"

After Loan's death Adams also said about him..."The guy was a hero. America should be crying. I just hate to see him go this way, without people knowing anything about him"

 

[lucky number 7]

Good list , a few I would have expected to get into it though were missing.

As was said before this is possibly the most powerful/ thought provoking photo ever.

here are some great ones from this list

 

[dullonien]

Surprised the photo of the Buddhist Monk setting himself on fire in protest wasn't there (the one Feic posted above). Easily the most powerful photo in my view. Maybe being a Rage Against The Machine fan, I remember it more easily. The story behind that photograph is terrifying, yet amazing. That a human being is capable of such a thing simply blows my mind. And to do so without screaming in pain even more astounding. The ultimate act of protest.

Larger copy: