Iconic Pictures
August 12, 2010
Iconic Photographs
After writing about how Kevin Carter’s pic of the starving child and the vulture pierced the conscience of humanity, I’m making a list of iconic photographs that caught the world’s eye. Some of them talk of grief, some of victory, some of happiness; yet, they all reflect human spirit and resilience, how unfazed we can be by the cold indifferent stare of destiny during the most trying of times.
The fiery green eyes of the Afghan refugee girl Sharbat Gula, the unknown teenager who dared to challenge the communist regime by facing the tanks at Tiananmen Square, the 3-year-old John F. Kennedy Jr saluting his father’s coffin, they all are manifestations of life in its starkest form. These photos, these people, they give us insights into life. What do you say?
(Left) A photograph by Mike Wells which shows a priest holding the hands of a starving child in Uganda. (Right) A physiotherapist holding the leg of a seven-year-old child at a clinic run by an NGO to cater to victims of the gas tragedy in Bhopal which killed about 4,000 people. (Pic by Saurabh Das)
2.Kim Phuc – the naked child fleeing to save her life as American soldiers dropped the napalm bomb on Trang Bang, North Vietnam – became the symbol of the Vietnam War. Photographer Nick Ut got a Pulitzer prize for this picture.
This young man dared to face a column of tanks as the Chinese military forcibly tried to remove student protesters who gathered to challenge the Communist rule at Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1989. This image is often hailed as championing the spirit of democracy and freedom
The Shanghai Baby by H S Wong: The wounded infant crying for help after Shanghai was bombed by the Japanese army. In a world that was torn apart by war, there seemed to be no end for human atrocities. When collateral damage became inevitable, the common man’s life had no value. (Right) The photograph of firefighter Chris Fields removing infant Baylee Almon from the rubbles of Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building after Oklahoma City got bombed. The baby, who celebrated his first b’day just a day before calamity struck, later died in the hospital.
When life becomes just a matter of survival, people forget how to smile. The blank expression of the migrant mother reflected the miserable state of the Great Depression era. The ‘Migrant Mother’ photo was taken by Dorothea Lange.
The unknown Afghan girl and her emerald eyes caught the world’s attention as it appeared on the cover of the June 1985 issue of National Geographic Magazine. Photographer Steve McCurry spotted Sharbat Gula, who lost both her parents in the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, at a refugee camp in Pakistan.
