Shot that shook the world

[Stan]

Watching the news this evening, they are running a poll on the most momentous shot of the past 50 years. I thought it would be interesting to open it to a wider audience
http://www.itn-theshot.com/

Post your choices...

Cheers
Stan

[Andy]

tianenmen square...

[JamesJWeg]

To me it was the Berlin wall, changing of an era.

James.

P.S. That probably has to do with connections to Communist eourpe on my part.

[rutt]

No Vietnam? No Kruschev at the UN baning his shoe? No LBJ. No Brown vs Board of Education? No riots after MLK's assassination? What a bad Neil Armstrong on the moon shot. No Avedon Beatles or Dylan shots?

Man, who picked these things? Must have been youngsters.

[JamesJWeg]

No Vietnam? No Kruschev at the UN baning his shoe? No LBJ. No Brown vs Board of Education? No riots after MLK's assassination? What a bad Neil Armstrong on the moon shot. No Avedon Beatles or Dylan shots?

Man, who picked these things? Must have been youngsters.
They do have some of those you listed. BTW, Kruschev did not say what most people thought he did.

James.

[rutt]

They do have some of those you listed. BTW, Kruschev did not say what most people thought he did.

James.

OK, I looked harder and found one Vietnam shot. Still, I don't find this set of choices very impressive. Maybe I'll make my own.

[DJ-S1]

U2 photos of missiles on Cuba (http://nsarchive.chadwyck.com/images/nsa/photos/cm009.jpg). Closest we ever got the full-on nuclear war (as far as I know).

I might vote for "Earthrise" from Apollo 8 (http://dayton.hq.nasa.gov/IMAGES/MEDIUM/GPN-2001-000009.jpg), too. First time seeing the full globe from space.

[Angelo]

OK, I looked harder and found one Vietnam shot. Still, I don't find this set of choices very impressive. Maybe I'll make my own.
I'm certain I'll enjoy your list better!

[ian408]

It's always interesting to see ones view of the world based on age.

One of the first defining pictures for me was the Vietnam era execution
followed by the self immolation (sp?). Tianenman Square and the Berlin
Wall are also examples. Happier times include the world as stitched together
from shuttle images showing major points of light. There are others and I'm
sure I will change from time to time.

Ian

[ginger_55]

I figured since it shook THE WORLD, I picked the Berlin Wall, not that that is the photo. I really don't think of that in terms of a photo.

How about that little girl in Viet Nam running down the road after all her clothes are burned off.

The world? Probably not.

Was Nelson Mandela there?

Those are not the best photos, they really are not.

ginger

You go, Rutt!

[gus]

Interesting subject stan...whilst the tianemen square is a historic photo to me..

...that shot that Kevin Carter took of that starving sudanese girl with the vulture waiting in the background haunts me.

I think it was just months after he suicided. I wont paste a link ...search for it but its a photo that will burn you.

Gus

[Stan]

It's always interesting to see ones view of the world based on age.

One of the first defining pictures for me was the Vietnam era execution
followed by the self immolation (sp?). Tianenman Square and the Berlin
Wall are also examples. Happier times include the world as stitched together
from shuttle images showing major points of light. There are others and I'm
sure I will change from time to time.

Ian
The Vietnam execution was the first image that came to mind when they announced the idea, I was suprised not to find it, but then I suppose they chose the Napalm girl instead.


...that shot that Kevin Carter took of that starving sudanese girl with the vulture waiting in the background haunts me.

I think it was just months after he suicided. I wont paste a link ...search for it but its a photo that will burn you.

Gus
I had not seen that shot. It must have been awful for him to try to come to terms with his lack of action to help the girl.


OK, I looked harder and found one Vietnam shot. Still, I don't find this set of choices very impressive. Maybe I'll make my own.
That's a great idea. There is a strong British skew to the images, not that sport ever shook the world, but it would be good to see everyone's idea of what shook the world.

Stan

[ian408]

...that shot that Kevin Carter took of that starving sudanese girl with the vulture waiting in the background haunts me.

It is on the one hand a very dramatic example of the struggle to survive and
on the other, very moving and sad photograph for its depiction of reality.
I can understand how it must have been a struggle.

Ian

[wholenewlight]

Interesting subject stan...whilst the tianemen square is a historic photo to me..

...that shot that Kevin Carter took of that starving sudanese girl with the vulture waiting in the background haunts me.

I think it was just months after he suicided. I wont paste a link ...search for it but its a photo that will burn you.

Gus
Haunting, is the right word for that shot.

Interesting article on Kevin Carter (http://www.thisisyesterday.com/ints/KCarter.html).

[ginger_55]

I haven't seen that shot, could google it later.

besides I wanted to bump this back to the top. Interesting topic.

The life of a photojournalist, in the international scene, or lots of areas, it can be difficult.

I keep referring people to read Shutterbabe. One of her good friends is killed while shooting a story. Many close calls. Many times her desire to help overcomes.

It was a real eye opener for me.

ginger

[ginger_55]

Also, I hate to say this, sounds so petty, but we in the developed world are pretty united in one thing: the petty.

So I would say the death of Princess Diana was pretty "developed world" earth shaking. More of us glued to the TV for that than for many more important things.

I would say that with Iraq fatigue here, and elsewhere probably, the Tsunami seemed to bring the world pretty much together, too.

I am an old lady, but my "Viet Nam" memories in real time are not photographs, but since then there are ones that I have seen often. It was a good war for photojournalists, IMO.

I used to love photojournalism. Really loved it. So I would stare at the photos over and over. For the war, my memories..............the whole thing, the songs, the marches, not the stills. The news. Voting to "end the war".
Never having seen a soldier dishonored, I could never relate to that, but I took it all in as I raised my young children, lived my life. I was in my twenties and early thirties. My kids are older than that now, and I still see them as very young. My husband is a Viet Vet, according to him he did little, was at a big base sorting bodies, or something. He was a medic, but not in the field much. If he was, he doesn't talk about it. I don't think he was. Not the type.

ginger

[PossumCorner]

Yes Ginger that was the first one I thought of, before I found it was on the site. I was only there for a short time, just before the fall of Saigon (now HCM City). There is a neat little book on Australian women in Viet Nam during the war called "Minefields and Mini Skirts" which puts another spin on the totally surreal experience of being there. If that image didn't shake the world, it should have. Probably my worst personal experience there was having my camera stolen - two fellows on a motor-bike flew past, the rear passenger grabbed my beloved Nikon and broke the neck-strap off at the connection to the leather case. What hurt more was seeing it for sale at the weekend markets a few weeks later. At that moment a fellow set fire to a blonde woman's hair with a cigarette lighter, and during the panic the camera disappeared. Later it was "Camera Ma'am - what camera?" Grrrrr. But yes that image changed the attitude of many people.

[JamesJWeg]

Yes Ginger that was the first one I thought of, before I found it was on the site. I was only there for a short time, just before the fall of Saigon (now HCM City). There is a neat little book on Australian women in Viet Nam during the war called "Minefields and Mini Skirts" which puts another spin on the totally surreal experience of being there. If that image didn't shake the world, it should have. Probably my worst personal experience there was having my camera stolen - two fellows on a motor-bike flew past, the rear passenger grabbed my beloved Nikon and broke the neck-strap off at the connection to the leather case. What hurt more was seeing it for sale at the weekend markets a few weeks later. At that moment a fellow set fire to a blonde woman's hair with a cigarette lighter, and during the panic the camera disappeared. Later it was "Camera Ma'am - what camera?" Grrrrr. But yes that image changed the attitude of many people.
I personally know of someone who got tired of camera's getting stolen and placed a hand grenade in a camera case with the pin wired to his belt. He heard a boom on the next street just after the moped turned the corner.

James.

[rutt]

I spent a little while trying to find photojournalism images on line. It's a bear. It's much easier to steal music than to "quote" this kind of image. Jeez, you'd think this copyright and micro-royality could get straightend out, wouldn't you?
You'd think the owners of these images would like small low res versions to be spread around in order to make the real things more valuable. BUT NO.

So I guess I can't play this game the way I wanted to.

[Higgmeister]

There was quite a diversity of pictures represented there. I personally voted in each category, but the World Trade shot, for me, has the most resounding impact on the world. Not yet, but I think it's coming.
Patriot Act, Homeland Security, Carnivour for the FBI to name just a few changes that help consolidate more power into our central government. I personally don't want to trade our freedoms for perceived security.
This has put the US on a dangerous track that, in time if it's not turned around, will effect the rest of the world. Preemptive strikes and government overthrows are just two examples. Yes, it's been going on for a long time now, but it used to be covert. Now the government has the populous support for these actions. Dangerous.
Don't get me wrong, I'm a very patriotic person and proudly served my country. At the same time, I'm patriotic for our freedoms, not our might.

Just my .02 on world affairs,
Chris

[ziggy53]

I don't have a single image to refer to, but the Hiroshima and Nagasaki images will forever haunt my mind since I first saw them, in historical reference. (It happened before my birth.)

I have to believe that nuclear war is the single, most definitive threat to humanity, and yet, I didn't find it mentioned at the ITN site. There is nothing else that compares in the magnitude of life lost in an instant, and the ramifications and repercussions that last today, sixty years after the incidents.

I'm afraid that I cannot take ITN, or their poll, seriously as a result.

ziggy53

[sberley]

this is a hard question - i vote for 4 - all for different reasons

Depravity of war - the Vietnam execution photo http://www.wellesley.edu/Polisci/wj/Vietimages/vcexec.htm

Strength of character & conviction - Lone man standing down the tank at Tiannamen

Homage to history - the "iwo jima" photo of FDNY after 9/11

Hope for the future - Apollo 8's Earth rise over the moon

[Stan]

I don't have a single image to refer to, but the Hiroshima and Nagasaki images will forever haunt my mind since I first saw them, in historical reference. (It happened before my birth.)

I have to believe that nuclear war is the single, most definitive threat to humanity, and yet, I didn't find it mentioned at the ITN site. There is nothing else that compares in the magnitude of life lost in an instant, and the ramifications and repercussions that last today, sixty years after the incidents.

I'm afraid that I cannot take ITN, or their poll, seriously as a result.

ziggy53
Whilst I agree that there are some holes in the selection, the choice has been restricted to the last 50 years, ruling out "Peace in our time" et al

Stan

[ian408]

I don't have a single image to refer to, but the Hiroshima and Nagasaki images will forever haunt my mind since I first saw them, in historical reference. (It happened before my birth.)

I think if you refer to images outside the scope, I'd have to say a series of images
from Hiroshima that Life Magazine featured come to mind.

Ian

[Seamus]

I think if you refer to images outside the scope, I'd have to say a series of images
from Hiroshima that Life Magazine featured come to mind.

Ian
The pictures from the concentration camps are the ones I found most disturbing from WW 2.

Shay.

[wxwax]

Picking a "best of" or "most important" is a pointless exercise. There are so many memorable shots and important events.

[Seamus]

Picking a "best of" or "most important" is a pointless exercise. There are so many memorable shots and important events.
I have to disagree. Photography is a medium that evokes emotion when it captures a moment in time. Making a list of your favourite photographs is an interesting discussion that is ideally suited to a forum like this.

[Stan]

I have to disagree. Photography is a medium that evokes emotion when it captures a moment in time. Making a list of your favourite photographs is an interesting discussion that is ideally suited to a forum like this.
I agree, however the immediacy of journalism today lessens the catastrophic imagery that so shocked even a few years ago.

In the recent bombings in London, the news channels were asking for phone pics and vids of the immediate aftermath of the explosions. Today, one is so bombarded with media images that it lessens the impact of a really shocking photojournalist shot.

In the case of Kevin Carter, he must have become immune to the suffering surrounding him to do nothing to help the object of his shot. Only when he returned to his society did he realise he needed to do very little to make a difference.

The shock value of images shot ten years ago or more have a far greater impact than those of today, since there was probably only one unique shot that was headlined globally. I therefore think it has a relevance here.

This is not about a situation that shook the world but the shot.

Cheers
Stan

[wxwax]

Awww, Angelo, please let's not drag current political disagreements into this, OK? You know what kind of messy, pointless arguements will erupt. I do it all the time at ADV, but the heat and the passion aren't a good fit for dgrin.

[gus]

Awww, Angelo, please let's not drag current political disagreements into this, OK? You know what kind of messy, pointless arguements will erupt. I do it all the time at ADV, but the heat and the passion aren't a good fit for dgrin.
:thumb

[Angelo]

Awww, Angelo, please let's not drag current political disagreements into this, OK? You know what kind of messy, pointless arguements will erupt. I do it all the time at ADV, but the heat and the passion aren't a good fit for dgrin.
fair enough. I deleted it.

[wxwax]

fair enough. I deleted it.
:thumb Thanks, man.