What do history's most iconic photographs say about us?

Some time ago i made a research about energy policy, one the pictures i included were these..The First pictures of our home which made human so humble and fragile, and united?

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[edit on 3-8-2009 by Foppezao]

The way i see it is that Humanity as a whole can't be judged solely on events that it has caused, either proud or shameful. We are after all susceptible to rage, love, hate, fear, happiness; it's what makes us human. We are capable of wonderful and beautiful dreams, but we are also capable of the darkest nightmares. It's almost sad in a way because humanity will most certainly never break the circle it's stuck in, the perpetual loop of peace and war, life and death, destruction and rebirth...

The first photo ever made. For sure it’s one of the most historic photo. 1828.


The beginning of the World War II.
September 1, 1939, 4:45 a.m. German drill ship "Schleswig-Holstein" opens fire on the polish bunkers at the Westerplatte, a woody peninsula near Danzig




Bomb hit the Prudential Hotel during the Warsaw Rising at the end of the WWII. That photo is most symbolic photo of Polish rising in Warsaw.





[edit on 3-8-2009 by odyseusz]

I guess it proves we will believe anything we see in pictures..

The IWO Jima is a FAKE picture. lol typical americans.

By morning of the fifth day of the battle (February 23), Mount Suribachi was effectively cut off from the rest of the island—above ground. By then, the Marines knew that the Japanese defenders had an extensive network of below-ground defenses, and knew that in spite of its isolation above ground, the volcano was still connected to Japanese defenders via the tunnel network. They expected a fierce fight for the summit. Two four-man patrols were sent up the volcano to reconnoiter routes on the mountain's north face. Popular legend (embroidered by the press in the aftermath of the release of the famous photo "Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima") has it that the Marines fought all the way up to the summit. The American riflemen expected an ambush, but none materialized. The Marines did encounter small groups of Japanese defenders on Suribachi, but the majority of the Japanese troops stayed in the tunnel network. Occasionally the Japanese attacked in small groups and were generally all killed. The patrols made it to the summit and scrambled down again. They reported the lack of enemy contact to Colonel Chandler Johnson.[10]

Johnson then called for a platoon of Marines to climb Suribachi. With them, he sent a small American flag to fly if they reached the summit. Again, Marines began the ascent, expecting to be ambushed at any moment. And again, the Marines reached the top of Mount Suribachi without incident. Using a length of pipe they found among the wreckage atop the mountain, the Marines hoisted the U.S. flag over Mount Suribachi, the first foreign flag to fly on Japanese soil.[11] A photograph of this "first flag raising" was taken by photographer Louis R. Lowery. As the flag went up, Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal had just landed on the beach at the foot of Mount Suribachi. He decided that he wanted the flag as a souvenir. Popular legend has it that Colonel Johnson wanted the flag for himself. In fact, he believed that the flag belonged to the 2nd Battalion, 28th Marines, who had captured that section of the island. He sent Sergeant Mike Strank (who was photographed in the Flag Raising picture) to take a second (larger) flag up the volcano to replace the first. As the first flag came down, the second went up. It was after the second flag went up that Rosenthal took the famous photograph "Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima" of the replacement flag being planted on the mountain's summit.

This is the real pic i think.
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/0f711efd8e73.png[/atsimg]
And this is mu modified version of the fake pic.lol
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I have to disagree here. These are histories "most" iconic photgraphs.

I recently got a hard covered Time Life book of the last centuries most "iconic" photos.

Yes The raising of the flag was one. and perhaps 2 or 3 of the others you showed. Btw it contained over 50 photos.

The falling man was not in there, obviously, how is that one of histories most iconic photos. A photo of a healthy Martin Luther King Jr. in his prime is way more.

Many of the pictures included great/happy moments in Histories. The Famous Sailor kissing his girfriend (sorry not a history buff, forget what war it was at the end of.)

Pictures of Fred Astaire leaping through the air.

African Americans Swing Dancing.

Picasso playing with light.

Jackie Robinson, rounding third.

Maybe we have a different definition of "iconinic". But Many of your photos show doom and gloom, and horrible moments in history.

There are some great moments in history captured on film as well. I prefer to look at those. Instead of the worst images of man, I'd rather look at the mankind at his best. Just me.

But again a handful of the pictures you posted were in there.

Maybe you can cange the title (aside from two or three of the pictures you posted) to: What do history's most "trajic" photographs say about us?

Originally posted by Nola213

Maybe you can cange the title (aside from two or three of the pictures you posted) to: What do history's most "trajic" photographs say about us?

Well ur basically saying here is our history in photo's - forgot the negative ones depicting man at his worst, we'd rather forget such atrocities.

Well we should learn from history so these pictures I feel are just as important.

The problem is that everything depends on how you define "iconic". Choose photos from battles and wars, and you get one image. Choose photos from other events - say, the tearing down of the Berlin Wall, you may get a completely different image. Randomly choose images from the Internet and you'll get a mixture of porn and LOL cats.

If you're looking to bash humanity for being war-like and cruel, we've got plenty of photos to prove it - wars since the American Civil War. Genocide, atrocities, lynchings, murders, you name it. But that overlooks all the stuff people do that has nothing to do with war - all the kindness, love, goodwill shown every day throughout the world. It overlooks the beautiful works of art, architecture, music, sculpture, the efforts to heal, to build, to renew. It skips on the images of us working to undo and correct the mistakes we have made. Those don't show up well in images - you see Congress sitting in session, trying to come up with fair laws. Not very dramatic there, no iconic photo for us.

We miss most of the individual acts of heroism that take place every day. Not much drama in that, unless someone sweeps a child out of the way of an oncoming train. But what about the teachers and parents who struggle each day to help their kids grow up healthy and honest in a world that makes it increasingly difficult? What about the single parents who work two or more jobs and still try to be good parents to their children? The adult children, caring for their aged, infirm parents? The older kids caring for their younger brothers and sisters when their parents aren't available or functional? The response of people to disasters, natural and man-made, sending in food, medical supplies, and other help? The countless acts of kindness, goodness, helpfulness, courage, strength, shown by billions of people every single day? Not so iconic, but no less important.

The problem with the "iconic" photos is that they were in the news. The news focuses almost exclusively on drama and *bad* news - wars, famines, disasters, and other horrors. That's what sells papers and air time. We lost 3000 people to 911. That same year we lost over a million to heart disease and other preventable illnesses, but not a peep out of the news about that. Not dramatic enough, not enough horror.

If you look only to the news for our "iconic" images, you'll always come away with a highly negative view of humanity. That's what the news does, it focuses on the horror, the outrage, the drama, the fear. This is an incomplete view, and I say it is also a severely warped view. Yes, we have all that in us, the capacity to be cruel almost beyond imagination, to commit the worst atrocities, to butcher, to slaughter. But that's not *all* we are. That's only a part of the story, and I say it's not the most common part. It's the part we most desperately need to fix, agreed. The news does us a service by reminding us that we still need to fix what's wrong. But it harms us when it ignores all the things we're doing, every day, that try to fight against the violence and hatred.

If you're going to try to show what humanity is like, then show the whole story, not just the parts that are shameful and negative. This will be a challenge, because most of the noble acts don't get recorded. They're usually quiet, private acts between two people, nothing the news would report, nothing a photograph could show very well. Well, the exist, and I say they are the bulk of what makes us human.

Originally posted by VitalOverdose
The IWO Jima is a FAKE picture. lol typical americans.

The Iwo Jima photo is not exactly a fake. It is a re-enactment of a scene that actually took place. The photographer saw some soldiers raising the flag, but couldn't snap the pic fast enough. So he asked some soldiers to recreate the moment.

Sure, he no doubt cleaned it up a little bit, maybe added a couple more guys to the shot, but it wasn't a complete fabrication.

I don't consider it particularly "iconic", especially when applied to mankind as a whole. It's a great propaganda shot for the US war effort, that's all.

this simply shows we are an ignorant, out of touch society, that doesnt understand the meaning of life or how to go about living it

the fact that we are able to allow things like this to take place and to happen while so few are in control of so many shows we are a weak spineless society

simply put without our systems in place to support the rich, the world wouldnt be this way

technically it would be fairly simple to use our resources to provide for everyone in the world if only we all worked together

instead we are capitalistic, each man for themselves, and that is basic human nature

when the sh** hits the fan we only are concerned for our own self survival or for those of our immediate family and friends

yet if we just worked together and put aside petty man made differences supported by radical groups we could all live happily ever after

but instead we ignorantly fight over resources, religions, and governments

if we would all just live as good people and live righteous lives, we could throw away religion, we could disband all suppressive governments and rule ourselves

if we were all good we would need no government, no jails or control


yet we are too ignorant to do it

we all must fight each other over whos religion is right


whos god is the real god

or whos government is less corrupt

the sad thing is we have the resources to provide for us all but we dont know how to stop fighting for god and our country, when its all of ours country, all of ours God

we are simply a ignorant race, not the smartest one, and definitely not the most deserving

hopefully one day we as a species will evolve past this childishness and make this world and others the way they are supposed to be

reply to post by LiveForever8


I would like to state my opinion that only two, maybe three, of those photos you posted could be considered "iconic."

You simply gathered some of the most tragic and horrifying images you could gather, save a couple...

So of course they're going to leave a bad taste.



...Apparently I'm not the only one with this sentiment.

[edit on 3-8-2009 by Threadfall]

Originally posted by Threadfall
reply to post by LiveForever8

 

I would like to state my opinion that only two, maybe three, of those photos you posted could be considered "iconic."

You simply gathered some of the most tragic and horrifying images you could gather, save a couple...

So of course they're going to leave a bad taste.

This is not true.

My original post was from a website whose headline was, '12 of the most iconic photographs ever taken'.
I didn't pick and choose, but merely duplicated what this website (and many others i might add) considered the most iconic.
If you look up the definition of 'iconic' i would argue it doesn't even fit within the context, but thats beside the point.
These images aren't my opinion, it was kind of an offshoot of another thread i made: www.abovetopsecret.com...

I just wanted to assess people's reaction to the images considering the thread title.

Thanks for your imput.

Originally posted by XXXN3O
If you think about it, why would humanity enslave itself, logically that does not make sense.

Because that's what the vast majority of the population chooses. They choose to stay in suffering.

If you want out of suffering, then you must give up all desire and attachment and still the mind.

But most of you won't, because you want to keep on chasing after worldly desires.

Very depressing indeed, of what humans can do to one another. Hopefully one day the wealth and resources of this planet will be turned into doing some good in the world, stopping senseless wars and bringing equality to humankind.

Just a quick side note to the Vulture Pic...

His picture of an emaciated girl collapsing on the way to a feeding centre, as a plump vulture lurked in the background, was published first in The New York Times and The Mail & Guardian, a Johannesburg weekly. The reaction to the picture was so strong that The New York Times published an unusual editor's note on the fate of the girl. Mr Carter said she resumed her trek to the feeding centre. He chased away the vulture.

Afterwards, he told an interviewer, he sat under a tree for a long time, "smoking cigarettes and crying". His father, Mr Jimmy Carter laid last night: "Kevin always carried around the horror of the work he did." - The New York Times

Two months after he received for this image a Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography in 1994, bitter and punished by guilt, physically unstable, depending of narcotics and destroyed by the death of one of his close friends and element of The Bang-Bang Club, Ken Oosterbroek, Kevin Carter committed suicide. He was 33 years old and left a goodbye note:

"I am depressed ... without phone ... money for rent ... money for child support ... money for debts ... money!!! ... I am haunted by the vivid memories of killings & corpses & anger & pain ... of starving or wounded children, of trigger-happy madmen, often police, of killer executioners...I have gone to join Ken if I am that lucky






[edit on 3-8-2009 by troyoze]

[edit on 3-8-2009 by troyoze]

Bravo. We need more posts like this to remind us of who and what we are. We are animals. Brutal, stealing, killing... savage animals. But at the same time we have love, faith... hope... harmony. Yin and yang. It is amazing we can be so bad and yet, so good.
Starred and flagged. Great post.
-Z-

[edit on 4-8-2009 by kyle6677]

To me they say some of us are some ignet creatures and aint ascending to the next level.

[edit on 8/4/09 by Ophiuchus 13]

Originally posted by ZyPHeR
Bravo. We need more posts like this to remind us of who and what we are. We are animals. Brutal, stealing, killing... savage animals. But at the same time we have love, faith... hope... harmony. Yin and yang. It is amazing we can be so bad and yet, so good.
Starred and flagged. Great post.

-Z-

IMAGINE A NEUTRAL SPECIES AND HOW WOULD WE INTERACT TOGETHER

[edit on 8/4/09 by Ophiuchus 13]

It doesnt get any more real then this. These pictures grasp the true emotions of humans and how we all can act at different times. These pictures speak the truth of history and there isnt anything more real than humans in desperate times

Look closely at that first Civil War photo- those guys have been laying around awhile. Yuck.

These pictures are just sad. The one with the little boys hand in the missionaries made my eyes well up. So many of us take things like the internet for granted and yet people out there are literally starving to death and we complain that our meal wasnt big enough or incorrect. These pictures just show the bad side IMO of our entire world and sadly it is getting worse every day.