100 Photographs that Changed the World

History

The project began with an online question posted on *Life'''s website in 2003 and *The Digital Journalist'': Can photographs create the same historical effect as literature? The question remained on the website for visitors to openly answer to for several weeks. Most responses were in favor of the idea with the exception of a rebuttal from documentary photographer Joshua Haruni who said, "photographs can definitely inspire us, but the written word has the ability to spark the imagination to greater depths than any photograph, whose content is limited to what exists in the frame."

Life determined that "a collection of pictures that 'changed the world' is a thing worth contemplating, if only to arrive at some resolution about the influential nature of photography and whether it is limited, vast or in between." Pictures nominated by the public were reviewed by editors who then compiled 100 photographs that they felt portrayed technological photographic achievements, documented historic events and accomplishments or have achieved iconic cultural and, symbolic status. The book was edited by Robert Sullivan and picture editor Barbara Baker Burrows, and published by Time, Inc. Home Entertainment. An updated edition of the book was published August 9, 2011.

Sections

The work is divided into four major chapters and three accompanying subsections. The major quarters are:

• The Arts (concentrating on photography's evolution throughout the 19th century and its later application to cultural exploitation);
• Society (documenting images that captured moments that shifted public acquaintance with political, social, cultural and environmental issues);
• War (pivotal moments of conflict and associated violence); and
• Science and Nature (capturing technological triumphs, defeats and horrors).

The three subsections are:

• Photographic Art (early works of artists whose primary medium was photography);
• Trick Photography (infamous scams perpetrated through photographs); and
• Stop Action (photos that are in fact captures taken from film).

Photographs

Some of the included photos are identified with larger events, such as H.S. Wong's 1937 photograph of a lone child crying at a demolished train station on "Bloody Saturday" as representative of the entire bombing of Shanghai. Other photographs are excerpts from larger historic collections, such as Roger Fenton's and Alexander Gardner's respective groundbreaking documentations of the Crimean War and American Civil War. Margin notes document the circumstantial background of many photographs, as well as instances where the images have been accused of being staged.

Gallery

Some of the photos are depicted below. Only images in the public domain in the US can be displayed here. File:Untitled (point de vue), Niépce 1827 — HRC 2020 (cropped).jpg | View from the Window at Le Gras, 1826 File:Cavalry camp near Balaklava 1855.3a34625r.jpg|Cavalry camp near Balaklava – Crimean War, 1855 File:Roger_Fenton_-_Shadow_of_the_Valley_of_Death.jpg|The Valley of the Shadow of Death – Siege of Sevastopol, Crimean War, 1855 File:The Horse in Motion.jpg|The Horse in Motion, 1878 File:First medical X-ray by Wilhelm Röntgen of his wife Anna Bertha Ludwig's hand - 18951222.jpg |X-ray by Wilhelm Röntgen, 1896 File:First flight2.jpg | First successful flight by the Wright brothers, 1903 File:Woman of Tehuantepec - Tina Modotti, Getty.jpg | Woman of Tehuantepec by Tina Modotti, 1929 File:Bloody Saturday, Shanghai.jpg|Bloody Saturday – Battle of Shanghai, 1937 File:Lange-MigrantMother02.jpg|Migrant Mother, 1936 File:Stroop Report - Warsaw Ghetto Uprising 06b.jpg | Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, 1943 File:Into the Jaws of Death 23-0455M edit.jpg | Into the Jaws of Death, 1944 File:Nagasakibomb.jpg | Atomic Cloud Rises Over Nagasaki, 1945 File:Dalí Atomicus (final version).jpg | Dalí Atomicus, 1948 File:Che Guevara - Guerrillero Heroico by Alberto Korda.jpg | Che Guevara, 1960 File:Leap into Freedom.jpeg | East German border guard Konrad Schumann leaping over barbed wire to defect to West Germany, 1961 File:Thích Quảng Đức self-immolation.jpg | Thích Quảng Đức self-immolation, 1963 File:NASA-Apollo8-Dec24-Earthrise.jpg | Earthrise, 1968, by William Anders File:Buzz Aldrin's bootprint on the Moon, AS11-40-5877.jpg |Buzz Aldrin's boot print on the Moon, 1969 File:The Terror of War.jpg | Phan Thi Kim Phuc being burned by napalm, Vietnam, 1972. File:The Blue Marble, AS17-148-22727.jpg | The Blue Marble, 1972 File:Challenger explosion.jpg | Space Shuttle Challenger explosion, 1986

References

References

1. Sullivan, Robert. "The Premise Behind These Pictures". Time, Inc. Home Entertainment.