Powerful Photographs

My all time favorite image

2006-05-12T00:27:00.000-07:00

This happens to be my all time favorite image

Turkey 1

2006-03-22T08:10:00.000-08:00

A different type of photo for a change.....
If you look closely(click on the image) you will see that the black camels are actually the shadows of the real camels.

Nepal 1

2006-03-13T09:17:00.000-08:00

The flag of the revolution flies higher than ever.....

USA 1

2006-03-11T08:43:00.000-08:00

What is horrifying about this image is that it doesn't belong to the Hitler era but was taken a week ago !

Under the protection of police, supporters of the Nationalist Socialist Movement give the Nazi salute to taunt counter-demonstrators across the street during a rally in Orlando, Fla., on Saturday, Feb. 25, 2006.

Reminds me of this quote

Fighting fascism is nine tenths political education, one tenth equating their heads with the pavement - Leon Trotsky

Blogosphere 1

2006-02-19T09:32:00.000-08:00

While the cartoon debates and protests take over the real world and the virtual.
Here on the Internet hordes of oppurtunists are jumping on to the bandwagon
and giving vent to their misdirected hate....

I find this picture extremely disturbing and graphic
Its by far one of the worst pictures made
I think it won't even fit into the category of a cartoon....

This blog here contains more such pictures http://thestudyofrevenge.blogspot.com/

The author has become instantly famous over the net for his hateful images and he claims that he is doing this to express solidarity with the danes.
There were so many objections raised that google unlisted the blog and put a warning also

No offence to anyone but I thought I have to make my stand on this issue

I think this whole issue merely serves as a distraction from the real issues of the
failed war in Iraq and the proposed attack on Iran.
It is in the favor of the west to allow this issue to escalate as it would
give rise to anti-muslim sentiments which will allow it some respite from its failures in iraq and also help in its agression against Iran with popular support.

I also feel you are driving muslims up the wall with this campaign and if this continues the moderates will embrace the radicals.......

I find it sad as to where they are taking this freedom of speech drama to....

I agree that Islam is hardly perfect but then neither is any other relgion....

While the US and Britain pummel the great cities of the Middle East into dust, is the best the world can do is attack the soul of Islam like scavengers and parasites at a feast on a corpse?

I'm not a muslim and have my own issues with the concept of God, but as I watch the assault upon Islam, its people, and destruction of its culture by western interests is the best that those living elsewhere can offer as emphathy is to paint graffitti and obscene images of its Prophet?

The hypocracy of the west is best reflected in this cartoon which
I think speaks the truth.

Bolivia 1

2006-02-07T09:17:00.000-08:00

Nothing extraordinary about these photographs but they only serve
to conclude my previous post on che guevara

Che Guevara finally ran out of luck and was tracked down and executed
by a American trained unit of the bolivian army.
His hands were subsquently chopped of and sent as ID proof.

Complete informaion about che guevara - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara

Above is a picture of Felix Rodriguez(The man on the left ) with a captured Che Guevara. Felix was a CIA trained operative who supervised the capture and exectution of Che Guevara. Rodriguez still shows Guevara 's Rolex watch which he took as a sovenir .

He had close relations with many american terrorists
including George Bush Sr.

India 3

2006-02-02T23:53:00.000-08:00

Holi Playing boy

Ship breaking Bombay

A Bengali woman

If you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you - Friedrich Nietzsche

Cuba 1

2006-01-30T09:50:00.000-08:00

This single photograph of argentinian born cuban revolutionary Che Guevara stands out as one of the most powerful photographs of the last century.

The emotions that this man continues to evoke even today among ordinary people
are so strong that I find it hard to believe he has been dead for decades.

You might have seen this image on T-Shirts,books...

Alberto Korda was the photographer who took the picture of Che Guevara that became an icon of left-wing revolutionaries and students worldwide,

Korda took the photo for which he will be best remembered at a memorial service in March 1960.

Che Guevara stepped onto the podium and scanned the crowd. Korda snapped two quick shots, including the legendary one of the revolutionary with his beret, gazing like a prophet into the distance.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/1352650.stm

Those of you who seek to read more about this great man
Click here --- Life of Che Guevara

Vietnam 2

2006-01-19T08:41:00.000-08:00

Saigon, South Vietnam, 1 February 1968. South Vietnam national police chief Nguyen Ngoc Loan executes a suspected Viet Cong member.

About the image -- World Press Photo of the Year: 1968
Drawn by gunfire, Adams watched South Vietnamese soldiers bring a Viet Cong captive to a street corner, where he assumed he would be interrogated. Instead, Loan strode up, wordlessly drew a pistol and executed him. Years later, Adams found himself so defined and haunted by the picture that he wouldn't display it in his studio.

Coloumbia 1 continued

2006-01-15T09:15:00.000-08:00

I have found more information on Omar Sanchez
My previous post on her

The tragic image of 13-year-old Omayra Sanchez trapped in debris caused by a mudslide following the eruption of a volcano in Colombia in 1985.

Red Cross rescue workers had apparently repeatedly appealed to the government for a pump to lower the water level and for other help to free the girl. Finally rescuers gave up and spent their remaining time with her, comforting her and praying with her. She died of exposure after about 60 hours.

The picture had tremendous impact when it was published. Television cameras had already relayed Omayra's agony into homes around the world.

When the photo was published, many were appalled at witnessing so intimately what transpired to be the last few hours of Omayra's life. They pointed out that technology had been able to capture her image for all time and transmit it around the globe, but was unable to save her life.

I arrived in Bogota from New York about two days after the volcanic eruption. The area I needed to get to was very remote. It involved a five-hour drive and then about two and a half hours walking.

Dawn was just breaking and the poor girl was in pain and very confused
The country itself was in political turmoil - shortly before the explosion, there had been a takeover of the Palace of Justice in Bogota by leftist M-19 guerrillas. Many people had been killed and this had a big impact on the way people in the remote town of Armero were helped. The army, for example, had been mobilised in the capital.

I reached the town of Ameroyo at dawn about three days after the explosion. There was a lot of confusion - people were in shock and in desperate need of help. Many were trapped by debris.

I met a farmer who told me of this young girl who needed help. He took me to her, she was almost on her own at the time, just a few people around and some rescuers helping someone else a bit further away.

'Eerie silence'

She was in a large puddle, trapped from the waist down by concrete and other debris from the collapsed houses. She had been there for almost three days. Dawn was just breaking and the poor girl was in pain and very confused.

Frank Fournier. Picture Michelle Poire
People were asking: 'Why didn't you help her? Why didn't you get her out?' But it was impossible
All around, hundreds of people were trapped. Rescuers were having difficulty reaching them. I could hear people screaming for help and then silence - an eerie silence. It was very haunting. There were a few helicopters, some that had been loaned by an oil company, trying to rescue people.

Then there was this little girl and people were powerless to help her. The rescuers kept coming back to her, local farmers and some people who had some medical aid. They tried to comfort her.

When I took the pictures I felt totally powerless in front of this little girl, who was facing death with courage and dignity. She could sense that her life was going.

I felt that the only thing I could do was to report properly on the courage and the suffering and the dignity of the little girl and hope that it would mobilise people to help the ones that had been rescued and had been saved.

I felt I had to report what this little girl had to go through.

Powerful

By this stage, Omayra was drifting in and out of consciousness. She even asked me if I could take her to school because she was worried that she would be late.

I gave my film to some photographers who were going back to the airport and had them shipped back to my agent in Paris. Omayra died about three hours after I got there.

At the time, I didn't realise how powerful the photograph was - the way in which the little girl's eye connect with the camera.

There was an outcry - debates on television on the nature of the photojournalist - how much he or she is a vulture
The photograph was published in Paris Match magazine a few days later. People were very disturbed by it because Omayra's plight had been captured by television reporters and relayed around the world. Then my picture of her in the last few hours of her life was published after she had died.

People were asking: "Why didn't you help her? Why didn't you get her out?" But it was impossible.

There was an outcry - debates on television on the nature of the photojournalist, how much he or she is a vulture. But I felt the story was important for me to report and I was happier that there was some reaction; it would have been worse if people had not cared about it.

I am very clear about what I do and how I do it, and I try to do my job with as much honesty and integrity as possible. I believe the photo helped raise money from around the world in aid and helped highlight the irresponsibility and lack of courage of the country's leaders. There was an obvious lack of leadership. There were no evacuation plans, yet scientists had foreseen the catastrophic extent of the volcano's eruption.

People still find the picture disturbing. This highlights the lasting power of this little girl. I was lucky that I could act as a bridge to link people with her. It's the magic of the thing.

There are hundreds of thousands of Omayras around the world - important stories about the poor and the weak and we photojournalists are there to create the bridge.

The question of the power of the press is more important today that it ever has been because it is so much under pressure from the business side of things.

Chile 1

2006-01-14T08:53:00.000-08:00

Salvador Allende
Seen here moments before his death at the Moneda Presidential palace

Salvador Allende was killed in a US supported ,planned military coup.
(The man in the centre with the helmet, the gun he clutches in his
hand was a gift from Fidel Castro of Cuba )
He was elected in Chile .
One of the first democratically elected communist head of
state in the world.

This incident is refered to as the other september 11 as it also took place
on september 11,1973.

War Criminal Henry Kissinger (United States of America )
had this to say about Chile

"I don't see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist due to the irresponsibility of its own people "

Amsterdam 1

2006-01-11T02:48:00.000-08:00

Paul Vreeker of Reuters shot this powerful picture showing an Iranian immigrant protesting against proposed Dutch asylum laws.

Britain 1

2006-01-11T02:41:00.000-08:00

Bob Martin from the UK was covering the Paralympic Games for Sports Illustrated when he shot this image of the 200m freestyle heats.

Many physically normal men and women in today's
world live like cripples choosing to spend their entire life behind
computers or in front of television while there exist today blind
and physically challenged men who have completed the ascent of Mount Everest.

Players of the Single Leg Amputee Soccer Club in Sierra Leone.

Vietnam 1

2006-01-04T10:18:00.000-08:00

Burning Monk 1

On June 11, 1963, Thich Quang Duc, a Buddhist monk from the Linh-Mu Pagoda in Hue, Vietnam, burned himself to death at a busy intersection in downtown Saigon, Vietnam.. Eye witness accounts state that Thich Quang Duc and at least two fellow monks arrived at the intersection by car, Thich Quang Duc got out of the car, assumed the traditional lotus position and the accompanying monks helped him pour gasoline over himself.

He ignited the gasoline by lighting a match and burned to death in a matter of minutes. David Halberstam, a reporter for the New York Times covering the war in Vietnam, gave the following account: I was to see that sight again, but once was enough. Flames were coming from a human being; his body was slowly withering and shriveling up, his head blackening and charring.

In the air was the smell of burning human flesh; human beings burn surprisingly quickly. Behind me I could hear the sobbing of the Vietnamese who were now gathering. I was too shocked to cry, too confused to take notes or ask questions, too bewildered to even think…. As he burned he never moved a muscle, never uttered a sound, his outward composure in sharp contrast to the wailing people around him.

Thich Quang Duc had prepared himself for his self-immolation through several weeks of meditation and had explained his motivation in letters to members of his Buddhist community as well as to the government of South Vietnam in the weeks prior to his self-immolation. In these letters he described his desire to bring attention to the repressive policies of the Catholic Diem regime that controlled the South Vietnamese government at the time.

Prior to the self-immolation, the South Vietnamese Buddhists had made the following requests to the Diem regime, asking it to: Lift its ban on flying the traditional Buddhist flag; Grant Buddhism the same rights as Catholicism; Stop detaining Buddhists; Give Buddhist monks and nuns the right to practice and spread their religion; and Pay fair compensations to the victim's families and punish those responsible for their deaths.

When these requests were not addressed by the Deim regime, Thich Quang Duc carried out his self-immolation. Following his death, Thich Quang Duc was cremated and legend has it that his heart would not burn. As a result, his heart is considered Holy and is in the custody of the Reserve Bank of Vietnam.

http://www.geocities.com/tcartz/sacrifice.htm

Burning Monk 2 (Another monk at such event )

You must eventually become immune - the man behind the monk is still trying to find a light for his cigarette ?

Iraq 2

2006-01-03T02:42:00.000-08:00

A young girl whose parents died when their family car came under fire from US forces in Tal Afar.

Uganda 1

2005-12-30T10:15:00.000-08:00

A starving boy places his emaciated hand into that of a missionary in the Karamoja district of Uganda.

Palestine 3

2005-12-23T08:52:00.001-08:00

Palestinian boys in Gaza city raise toy guns in a defiant gesture as the photographer drives past in a car.

Rwanda 1

2005-12-21T00:36:00.000-08:00

A Hutu man mutilated by his own tribe in Rwanda; he was suspected of sympathising with Tutsi rebels.

Pakistan 1

2005-12-19T21:22:00.000-08:00

The body of an Afghan boy who died of dehydration is prepared for burial at Jalozai refugee camp in Pakistan.

India 2

2005-12-19T08:51:00.000-08:00

A begger in bombay,India with her child

Afghanistan 1

2005-12-16T22:31:00.000-08:00

The Execution of Zarmeena

Support the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA)

http://rawa.org/

Hands of a thief chopped

Welcome to the Real World

Unknown 1

2005-12-11T23:24:00.000-08:00

Those who live by the gun die by the gun

Note the outline of his gun in blood.

Coloumbia 1

2005-12-11T23:02:00.000-08:00

A girl drowns trapped in a landslide in coloumbia

*Update*
I found some information on her
Omayra Sanchez, 12, was trapped after the Neveda del Ruiz Volcano erupted in Columbia. She later died.

Sudan 1

2005-12-11T22:55:00.000-08:00

In 1993 Kevin Carter headed north of the border with Silva to photograph the rebel movement in famine-stricken Sudan. To make the trip, Carter had taken a leave from the Weekly Mail and borrowed money for the air fare. Immediately after their plane touched down in the village of Ayod, Carter began snapping photos of famine victims. Seeking relief from the sight of masses of people starving to death, he wandered into the open bush. He heard a soft, high-pitched whimpering and saw a tiny girl trying to make her way to the feeding centre. As he crouched to photograph her, a vulture landed in view. Careful not to disturb the bird, he positioned himself for the best possible image. He would later say he waited about 20 minutes, hoping the vulture would spread its wings. It did not, and after he took his photographs, he chased the bird away and watched as the little girl resumed her struggle. Afterward he sat under a tree, lit a cigarette, talked to God and cried. "He was depressed afterward," Silva recalls. "He kept saying he wanted to hug his daughter."
He won the pulitzer prize for the above photograph

The photographer killed himself a year later.

http://www.wpe.com/~musici/Kevin%20Carter.html

Extract from his suicide note

I am haunted by the vivid memories of killings & corpses & anger & pain... of starving or wounded children, of trigger-happy madmen... The pain of life overrides the joy to the point that joy does not exist.

India 1

2005-12-09T00:03:00.000-08:00

Tsunami Victim being mourned
Cuddalore, Tamil Nadu, India

Monkey Trainers Daughter
Street Perfomers
New Delhi, India

Palestine 2 - Farres Odah

2005-12-07T08:36:00.000-08:00

Gaza Gains a Martyr, Parents Lose a Son

GAZA CITY –– The poster boy for Palestinian defiance stood about 5 feet 4 inches in his socks. He might have weighed 100 pounds if he had eaten recently and well, which he rarely did. He was good at soccer, naughty at school, and before he died--shot in the neck by Israeli troops and left to bleed to death on the battlefield--he told his friends he was intent on becoming a martyr for the Palestinian cause.

Faris Odeh got his wish, and then some.

Killed last month, a few weeks shy of his 15th birthday, Faris has been immortalized posthumously by a remarkable photograph. It captured him--short, scrawny and wearing a baggy sweater--rearing back to sling a stone at an Israeli tank perhaps 15 yards away.

Now Faris is a Palestinian legend, his valor celebrated in graffiti and wall art. Political parties pay him homage. Television extols his example. His photograph adorns calendars and posters and has been painted, larger than life and in bright colors, on the walls of refugee camps in the Gaza Strip and on the sides of West Bank office buildings.

But at home in Gaza City, where Faris lived with his parents and eight brothers and sisters, the hullabaloo over his death strikes a sour chord. His mother, for one, is not sure she buys it.

"When I see his picture my heart is torn to pieces," said Anam Odeh, 40. "I guess I feel proud for him being called a hero, standing in front of a tank and all that. But when I see his classmates come around after school, all I can do is cry.

"And this is what I was just telling my neighbors"--she starts to weep softly, brushing the tears away as the words come tumbling out--"that I'm so afraid that Faris's death will be for nothing. That everything will just go back to normal. And the only thing that happened is that I'll have lost my son."

In death, Faris has joined a pantheon of Palestinian martyrs, such as Mohammed Aldura, the 12-year-old boy shot to death Sept. 30 in Gaza as his father tried to shield him. Faris's image fits above captions proclaiming "the Palestinian David and the Israeli Goliath." Some predict his name will live forever as a synonym for heroism.

On Nov. 1, after a month of clashes, Faris's cousin Shadi--a young man who had recently joined the Palestinian police--was killed in a confrontation in Gaza. "When that happened, Faris said, 'I swear I'll avenge his death,' " Anam Odeh said. "He went to Shadi's funeral wreath and placed a snapshot of himself in it. He said the wreath would be for him, too."

Late at night, after the beatings and the screaming and the punishments, Faris's parents would talk quietly in their room. "I'm afraid for Faris," his father would say, Anam Odeh remembered. "I'm afraid something bad will happen."

Faris was killed Nov. 9, at Karni--about 10 days after the famous photo was taken. His friends said he was shot while crouching down to pick up a stone. He was so close to an Israeli tank, they said, that they could not drag his still body to an ambulance for more than an hour. The hospital pronounced him dead on arrival.

It was not long before people began to stop Anam Odeh on the street, recognizing her from television. "Aren't you the martyr Faris's mother?" they'd say. Like all families of Palestinians killed by Israeli troops since September, the Odehs received a $10,000 check from Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

For Palestinians, the Odehs' son is a hero, a lesson, a model. But not to his mother.

"Faris was a boy who loved me so much," she said, weeping again. "His blood is worth so much more."

© 2000 The Washington Post

http://www.library.cornell.edu/colldev/mideast/gazmart.htm

Palestine 1- Mohammed Al Dura

2005-12-05T05:40:00.000-08:00

Israeli Aggression Against Palestinian Children

Mohammad Al-Durra (12 years Old), shot along with his father and killed.
His last words-"Don't worry daddy, the ambulance will come and save us." (TIME magaizine, Oct. 16 issue-US edition)

Pictures that shook the world; Mohammad al-Durra, 12 year old, died huddled in his father's arms' caught in a hail of Israeli bullets and captured by a viewfinder of a television camera in a shocking scene viewed all over the world. Amid a welter of brutal scenes from street battles that have swept the West Bank and Gaza Strip since September 28, 2000, the boy's death was a singularly horrific one.

Television footage shot by French TV during Saturday's pitched battle outside the heavily guarded Israeli settlement of Netzarim showed Mohammed clinging to his father, Jamal, and screaming in terror as a sustained burst of gunfire raked a concrete wall behind them. As the two huddled behind a tiny abutment, the father vainly stretched a protective arm in front of his son. Most stations that aired the footage cut away before the stricken boy could be seen slumping over, loosing his grip on the father, who himself twitched convulsively as he was struck by round after round.

Iraqi pictures 1

2005-11-27T04:06:00.000-08:00

I am sick and tired of seeing only soft pro-american images of the Iraq War
in the Indian media like today we had US soldiers hugging and comforting Iraqi boys,
in the international section of The Times of India
Staged photo shoots that show the American Army in good light

I have removed the gory images that involve blood
I might consider posting them later

This is the Truth about the Iraq war
and don't expect to find any of these photographs
published in the Mainstream Media

These have been collected from various sources

Her family 'accidentally' shot and killed as they approached a US convoy.

Iraqi Girl- The enemy

Liberated by friendly cluster bombs

Iraqi Blood Bank

Smile! you are Liberated !

The downward pointed thumbs mean we ran out of flower petal

Dead mother liberated in Iraq

This Iraqi boy is so afraid of falling bombs, that during a rain storm, when it thunders, he has to be physically restrained to keep him from running aimlessly in search of cover. From what I've read, "shell shocked" children such as this are not uncommon in Iraq, thanks to those brave, brave men in the Pentagon.

she is too busy crying to shower Americans with kisses

Her brother was killed and her neck injured in recent attacks.

Our "enemy." The doctors had to tie him to his bed because there are no pain relievers to sooth him, courtesy of those brave, brave men at the Pentagon.

Sisters in Grief.
The men of their home are never going to return again
Probably a brother,a husband or a father
Maybe all of the above

A little girl cries beside the body of her father, slain before her eyes

This young soldier, Sergeant Ryan M. Campbell, was recently killed in Iraq. His final request, in a letter to his family, was to be buried with this photograph on his coffin.