40 Of The Most Powerful Photographs Ever Taken

BuzzFeed ^ | May 30, 2012 | Jack Shepherd

[EveningStar]

A moving collection of iconic photographs from the last 100 years that demonstrate the heartbreak of loss, the tremendous power of loyalty, and the triumph of the human spirit.

[EveningStar]

I don't agree completely with the author's assessment about all these photographs being powerful, but some of them are pretty good.

[Tzimisce]

It’s all pictures of liberal hippie causes....

[the invisib1e hand]

well, we'll just have to take your word for it.

picture-less-pic-thread bump.

[EveningStar]

I know. :(

[dfwgator]

Here are some of my picks:

[Ken522]

Any pretty girls?

[GeorgeWashingtonsGhost]

Did I miss the MOST ICONIC PHOTO OF ALL TIME????.. The flag raising at Iwo Jima !!!!!!!!!!!!!

[EveningStar]

I clicked on the link. So can anyone else.

Unlike a lot of folks here, I believe in respecting copyrighted material and intellectual property.

[InvisibleChurch]

How are pictures of DDay and a man standing up to Chinese tanks liberal causes?

[al baby]

[GeorgeWashingtonsGhost]

[al baby]

Rick Monday amen

[princess leah]

This scene reminds me of the first time I saw the 2nd Original Star Wars film and the moment that Han Solo was put into the Carbon Freezer. Despair, a feeling of hopelessness, and hatred for the dark side!

[the invisib1e hand]

makes no sense. a citation is all the posting of copyrighted material requires.

Not posting pictures on a picture thread is not only illogical it's lazy.

[Repeat Offender]

I don't know how to post pictures, but this is one of my favorites....it's the Iraqi child hiding behind an US Army soldier after a suicide bomb went off.

http://thedignifiedrant.blogspot.com/2007_05_01_archive.html

(scroll down a little to see the picture)

[Kartographer]

This is a picture of liberal hippie causes? Did you forget to take your meds this morning?

[moonshot925]

US TANKS FACE OFF WITH SOVIET TANKS, BERLIN CRISIS 1961

[SoKatt]

I agree. I love the photograph of Houston James and Sgt. Mark Graunke Jr.; makes me tear up every time!

[Lazamataz]

THIS is the most powerful photo in the world. It has the power to change lives.

[al baby]

Not posting pictures on a picture thread is not only illogical it’s lazy.

About as lazy as not being able to click a link to see the pictures

[A_Former_Democrat]

Yeah, it seemed like it got better as the list wore on.

I have never heard of the the Himmler/POW incident.

[mrpotatohead]

The picture with Margaret Thatcher at Reagan’s casket still brings a tear to my eye.

[FlingWingFlyer]

That’s my all time favorite. VP Cheney reminds me of Father Merrin (The Exorcist) who knows what we’re dealing with here.

[al baby]

Maureen Dowd is one fine looking women

[al baby]

Yes indeed he knew like most of us knew

[dfwgator]

Stalingrad

Polish AK soldiers during the Warsaw Uprising

[Revolting cat!]

Sentimentalism. Maybe cheap, maybe not.

[Mears]

Baloney.

Near the end of the photos is one of an 8 year old accepting the flag at the funeral of his dead Marine father. It tore me apart.

Not liberal,not conservative,just heartbreaking.

[Kartographer]

Have we forgotten?

[cajungirl]

my favorite too, Cheney would have been agreat President.

[LaRueLaDue]

Best one is number 40: Earthrise. Puts a bit of perspective on things...

[cajungirl]

Did you look before popping off?

[Lazamataz]

No, that is not Maureen Dowd. This is the woman Maureen Dowd lost her fiance, Michael Douglass, to.

[Kartographer]

And this one didn't make it?

[GeorgeWashingtonsGhost]

Good catch.. Those are powerful indeed.

[little jeremiah]

Cheney knew exactly what 0mugabe is. Bush looks ss though he’s holding in laughter. Why didn’t any of them say anything.

[RansomOttawa]

For a collection of the most iconic photos of the last 100 years, I thought it was pretty biased in favour of only the last few years. And I don't recall seeing anything from the Vietnam era, apart from the one "flower power" one. No burning Kim Phuc running down the road? No evacuation of Saigon? Like or hate Vietnam-era politics, there's no denying the visual impact of those photos.

For that matter, where were the mushroom clouds? Astronauts on the moon?

[KarlInOhio]

Lots of American ones I would have included, but I can think of a few foreign ones that I would have picked long before most of those. Among those are Yeltsin standing on the tank during the Soviet coup attempt, the pictures of Neda Agha-Soltan dying after being shot by the Iranian paramilitary and any number of pictures of people escaping over the Berlin Wall (or even one of the shots of the Wall being torn down).

Far too many of the forty were people weeping at coffins or graves, and I think they lost some of their power from repetition. And three of the forty were dogs being reunited with their owners? Pick one (or none) and that opens up two more slots.

[JoeProBono]

[oldfart]

Sentimentalism? Maybe, but there comes a time in most lives when sentimental memories invoked by timely photos becomes a major part of life. When you can no longer go out and make new memories you tend to value the old ones more.

You’ll see — if you live long enough.

[mikrofon]

Thank you. I was about to post it.

[moonshot925]

OPERATION UPSHOT-BADGER, 18 APRIL 1953

[Bratch]

Can't believe they didn't include this one.

[I cannot think of a name]

This one should be there:

http://pulitzerprize.org/graveside-anthony-suau-1984/

Probably a little to patriotic for a site that thinks two lesbians getting married is “powerful.”

[raybbr]

Yeah, hippie causes...

"Wait For Me Daddy," by Claude P. Dettloff, October 1, 1940: A line of soldiers march in British Columbia on their way to a waiting train as five-year-old Whitey Bernard tugs away from his mother's hand to reach out for his father. (H/t Jodi P)

[NELSON111]

Liberal, hippie causes?

An old Russian war vet kneeling by his tank...two sisters where there where three...a dog sitting by the grave of it's owner...separated relatives..."Wait For Me Daddy"...Navy chaplain Luis Padillo gives last rites to a soldier wounded by sniper fire during a revolt in Venezuela.

This list goes on. You have a problem. Having been to war...and seen it...there is nothing liberal or hippie about liking peace...and all of us that have been there will tell you that. Me thinks you didn't look at the pictures and are now in hiding.

[RansomOttawa]

Thanks! I was thinking more of the Operation Crossroads underwater test, or the ones that demolished the mocked-up town in Nevada, but that will do in a pinch.

[Kartographer]

I would replace all three of their choices of dogs being reunited with their owners and replace them with just this one:

[fwdude]

Less than half of them are “powerful,” except in a Leftist’s warped world.

Who picked these losers?

[raybbr]

I'm kind of partial to this one... 8^)