The most powerful image in history

<p>Enjoy<br>

<a href="http://coviral.com/historys-powerful-photos/?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=yahoo&utm_campaign=historys-powerful-photos">http://coviral.com/historys-powerful-photos/?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=yahoo&utm_campaign=historys-powerful-photos</a></p>

<p>Sophia Loren and Jayne Mansfield sharing a mammarable moment. Mariska Hargitay from Law and Order SVU is Jayne Mansfield's and Mickey Hargitay's daughter. I had looked through these pictures before. A lot of interesting pictures.</p>

The most important photographs ever made are earthrise above the surface of the moon and the photo of the imprint of

Neil Armstrong's boot on the surface of the moon. In the history of mankind and photography no other images come close to the significance and symbolic depth of these two photographs. To explain these two photographs means examining and understanding the entire history of life on planet Earth.

<p>Sorry, but "The most pow...." - whatever you choose will mostly be in the image of your own prejudices and limited perspectives.<br>

"Sophia Loren and Jayne Mansfield..." just plain ridiculous. <br>

<br>

And yet some of these photos are probably to stay with us for a very, very long time.</p>

<p>The photograph of the exploding Hindenburg always comes to my mind when I think of iconic images. Maybe because I was at such an impressionable age when I first saw it. The still of Jackie Kennedy cradling her dead husband in the back of a convertible also for the same reason. I was 7 years old and my mother was crying.<br>

I don't know if either of those images are displayed at the above link because I had a hard time navigating it from here.</p>

 

<p>An example of powerful photos that is not among the almost hundred of the selection would be another photo from the Apollo mission, shot July 20, 1969: <a href="http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/images/a11earthrise.jpg">The </a><a href="http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/images/a11earthrise.jpg">Earthrise over the lunar horizon</a> and not the footsteps on the moon which is more showmanship. The first vision of the Earth from space provide a visualization of a new continuousness about the sharing the globe, which have had widespread political, economic and cultural ramifications : globalisation, global climate scenarios, world dominance etc <br>

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It is also noteworthy, that according to the selection nothing really seem to have been happening in Africa, South America and Asia and yet photographs exist: a very Western hemisphere, if not to say American, focus on what is "most powerful".</p>

<p>These two:<br>

http://zigzags.blogs.lindependant.com/media/02/02/3737476800.jpg<br>

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/fe/W._Eugene_Smith_-_Tomoko_Uemura_in_Her_Bath.jpg<br>

Henry Posner<br /><strong>B&H Photo-Video</strong></p>

<p>Some are pretty off the wall suggestions, but of course a lot of them are gems. Loathsome presentation though.</p>

<p>I agree with all the comments. It is after all subjective. Some I love, some not so much. This is what makes the world we live in beautiful.</p>

<p>The title of the article might have been The Most Powerful <em>Documentary</em> Images in History, because that's the only genre (and the related journalistic genre) that's represented, at least in the 50% of the images I looked at before feeling so burdened by the functionality of the website that I gave up. There are many different types of powerful images to consider and, though I'd agree that many of these are powerful, I'd say the article restricts the discussion to a certain type of power and the kind of power evidenced in Stieglitz, Weston, Adams, Avedon's fashion work, Sudek's still lifes, Eggleston's suburbia, and so many more is overlooked. Can we really talk about the most powerful images without discussing at least one example of the kind of snapshots we all are so moved by that comprise our family albums?</p>

<p>I would think that any one of the images from the bombing of Hiroshima or Nagasaki would qualify as one of the most powerful images in history. The world has forever changed because of those events. The threat of nuclear war has been with us ever since. http://www.nucleardarkness.org/hiroshima/http://www.nucleardarkness.org/hiroshima/</p>

<p>When discussing "powerful images", it can be relevant to consider Wei Wei's formulation:<strong><em> It is not the image which is chocking</em>, it is reality</strong>. Looking through this mixed back of so-called powerful images, you will find, that in the case of the great majority of them, it is the horror of reality, that makes them "powerful", and the images in question are just the providers. "Powerful images" are so much more than that - backing Fred's good comments above, apart from his last sentence when talking about "history" of mankind.</p>

<p>To me, the most powerful images in history ae ones I have made. My archives are full of them.</p>

<p>As an Australian, I also live near the world's most beautiful beach, and until I moved to Hobart, which is the world's most lifestyle friendly city (just ask any local, they will tell you), I lived in many years in Melbourne, which has been consistently rated as the world's most liveable city. </p>

<p>Australianisms!, all the way...! We deal in superlatives Down Under. Australia is, after all, a superlative place. </p>

<p>Please excuse my warped humor, it must be the two glasses of good red wine (Tasmanian red, the world's most quaffable vintages) I've enjoyed this evening. </p>

<p>My nomination? I am with John. The amazing photo taken from the Enola Gay in 1945, of the first atomic bomb exploding over Hiroshima. Nothing in the world had compared to that at the time, and I earnestly hope, nothing ever will again. </p>

<p>Another glass of the world's best pinot now. Then to bed. </p>

<p>JD in Hobart, Tasmania</p>

 

<p>The most 'powerful' images in history for me would be images that influenced the future rather than those that documented the past. For example the 2 iconic images of the Vietnam war (the execution and the girl/napalm images) changed political thinking about the conflict - as did the Kent State image. More recently the image of the dead refugee child on the beach has had the 'power' of bringing the European refugee crisis into world focus. Others include the Tiananmen Square and Abu Ghraib images. For me there is a difference between iconic images (Marilyn Monroe's dress, JFK Jnr saluting his father's coffin) and images that have the power to change people's thinking.</p>

<blockquote>

<p>The title of the article might have been The Most Powerful <em>Documentary</em> Images in History, because that's the only genre (and the related journalistic genre) that's represented, at least in the 50% of the images I looked at before feeling so burdened by the functionality of the website that I gave up.<br>

</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Very true and totally agree.</p>

<p>"photo: reddit"<br>

Is this George Reddit? Or his daughter Simone? Who knew this one photographer had taken ALL of the most importantest photos of all time forever?</p>

 

<blockquote>

<p>The most important photographs ever made are earthrise above the surface of the moon and the photo of the imprint of Neil Armstrong's boot on the surface of the moon.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>I would probably think of Armstrong's photo of Aldrin (with the photographer reflected in the visor) first:</p>

<p>http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9c/Aldrin_Apollo_11.jpg</p>

<blockquote>

<p>In the history of mankind and photography no other images come close to the significance and symbolic depth of these two photographs.</p>

</blockquote>

<p> I think you could make a case for Rosalind Franklin's 'Photo 51':<br>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photo_51</p>

<p>I have always thought <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Blue_Dot">this one</a> to be the most iconic, powerful image in the history of mankind. A single pixel representing the entire humanity, what possibly can be more powerful than that?</p>