PHOTOGRAPHS THAT

CHANGED THE WORLDCommon Ground Project’s

DSLR Photography Workshop 1

September 2011

1Tuesday, September 6, 2011

The First Photograph [France - 1836] by Nicephore Niepce

Taken by Nicéphore Niépce, this is the first photograph ever taken which still exists. He called his method heliography (sun writing) and this photograph took 8 hours of exposure time (hence sunlight on both sides of the building)

2Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Breaker Boys [Pennsylvania, USA - 1910] by Lewis Hine

This is a photograph of breaker boys – child labour used to separate coal from slate. This image helped lead the nation to outlaw child labour. The photo was taken by Lewis Hine who travelled the United States taking photographs of child laborers.

3Tuesday, September 6, 2011

The Lynching of Young Blacks [Indiana, USA - 1930]by Lawrence Beitler

This photograph was taken after the lynching of two young black men, Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith, accused of raping a white girl. They were hanged by a mob of 10,000. The faces of the crowd are very telling. A third man was saved by the girls uncle who said he was innocent. Images like these sold into thousands and were made into postcards at the time to boost white supremacy.

4Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Migrant Mother [Oklahoma, USA - 1936]

by Dorothea Lange

This photograph of Florence Owens Thompson (32 year old mother of 7) is one of the great representations of the Great Depression.

The photograph was taken by Dorothea Lange after Florence had sold her tent to provide food for her children.

5Tuesday, September 6, 2011

V-J Day [New York, 1945]

by Alfred Eisenstaedt

This is one of the most famous photographs from the Second World War. The soldier and the nurse are unknown but people have come forward to claim the fame.

Apparently the nurse slapped the soldier immediately after. The event was the celebration of the end of the war and it was taken in Times Square by Alfred Eisenstaedt.

6Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Soviet Flag raised above the Reichstag [Berlin, Germany - 1945] by Yegvgeny Khaldei

Soviet Union soldiers Raqymzhan Qoshqarbaev, and Georgij Bulatov raising the flag on the roof of Reichstag building in Berlin, Germany in May, 1945.

7Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Gandhi at the Spinning Wheel [Delhi, India - 1946]by Margaret Bourke-White

It was the defining portrait of one of the 20th century’s most influential figures, but the picture almost didn’t happen. LIFE magazine’s first female photographer, Margaret Bourke-White was in India in 1946 to cover the impending Indian independence. The secretaries of Gandhi did not grant the permission and informed her that if she wanted to take a picture of Gandhi at spinning wheel then she also must learn to spin the wheel! Margaret did not want to miss the opportunity and she learned to spin the wheel.

8Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Dali Atomicus [New York, 1948] by Philipe HalsmanThe 1948 work Dali Atomicus explores the idea of suspension, depicting three cats flying, water thrown from a bucket, an easel, a footstool and Salvador Dalí all seemingly suspended in mid-air. The photograph is Philipe Halsman’s homage both to the new atomic age and to Dalí’s surrealist masterpiece "Leda Atomica" (seen on the right, behind the cats, and unfinished at the time). It took six hours, 28 jumps, and a roomful of assistants throwing angry cats and buckets of water into the air to get the perfect exposure.

9Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Lâm Văn Tức [Siagon, Vietnam - 1963] by Malcome Browne

This photograph of Lâm Văn Tức, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk who burned himself to death at a busy Saigon road intersection on 11 June 1963. He was protesting against the persecution of Buddhists by South Vietnam's Ngô Đình Diệm administration. This photo of his self-immolation was circulated widely across the world and brought attention to the policies of the Diệm regime.

10Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Phan Thị Kim Phúc [Vietnam, 1972] by Nick Ut

The girl in the centre of this photograph is 9 year old Kim Phúc. She is running from a napalm attack which caused serious burns on her back. The boy is her older brother. Both survived. This photo became one of the most published of the Vietnam war.

11Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Afghan Girl [Nasir Bagh Refugee Camp,

Pakistan - 1984] by Steve McCurry

At the Nasir Bagh refugee camp in 1984, Gula's photograph was taken byNational Geographic photographer Steve McCurry. Although her name was not known, her picture, titled "Afghan Girl", appeared on the June 1985 cover of National Geographic.

The image of her face, with a red scarf and her piercing sea-green eyes became a symbol both of the 1980s Afghan conflict and of the refugee situation worldwide. The image itself was named "the most recognized photograph" in the history of the magazine.

12Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Jampa Tenzin [Lhasa, Tibet - 1987] by John Ackerly

After running into a burning building with his charred flesh, Jampa Tenzin, was hoisted by his fellow protesters as he continued to demonstrate. He was arrested the same day, on October 1, 1987 in Lhasa. Jampa became the emblem of the Tibet Independence movement around the world, this picture being displayed on almost every Free Tibet website.

13Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Tank Man [Beijing, China - 1989] by Jeff Widener

Probably the most famous image from the student uprising in China in 1989, this photograph shows a single person blocking a row of tanks that were emerging on the square. The man survived but shortly after the square was filled with innocent blood.

14Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Sudan Famine [Sudan, 1993] by Kevin Carter

This photo is the 1994 Pulitzer Prize winner taken by Kevin Carter during the Sudan Famine. The photo depicts a child struggling towards a United Nations food camp a mile away. The vulture is waiting for the child to die. No one knows what happened to the child. Kevin Carter committed suicide 3 months later due to depression.

15Tuesday, September 6, 2011