Famous photographs of the 20th century. The most famous historical photographs

A couple of weeks after the events of September 11 in New York and Washington, a photograph of a guy standing on the roof of the World Trade Center in New York at the moment the fatal plane approached began to circulate on the Internet. The accompanying text reported that the picture was supposedly printed from a film that was found in the ruins of the World Trade Center. The FBI, they say, developed the film and specially published the picture on the Internet in order to find out who this guy was.

Immediately there were observant people who noticed suspicious facts:

"Tourist" is too warmly dressed for the weather that was on September 11 in New York;
The "tourist" could not be on the roof of the WTC when the first plane crashed into the building (8.45 am), because the observation deck opened at 9.30 am;
the plane comes in from the wrong side from which it actually flew up;
and in general this is a plane of the wrong model;
the angle of the shadow is not correct for this time of day;
the font used by the camera to mark the date of the photograph is not the one normally used.

The "tourist of death" was debunked, and seemed to be consigned to the dustbin of history forever. However, Internet users have a new hobby: using Photoshop to insert "Tourist" into various images - later, exactly the same fate will be prepared for the Witness from Fryazino.

Many were interested in the identity of the person depicted in the original. The "tourist of death" is called Peter Guzli, then he was 25 years old and he lived in Budapest. Peter visited the roof of the World Trade Center in New York in November 1997. When the complex was destroyed, Guzli remembered these pictures and took up Photoshop. Then he sent the picture to his friends, not assuming what all this will result in.

2. Afghan girl

In late 1984, photographer Steve McCurry ended up in the Nazir Bagh Afghan refugee camp in Pakistan, where he was allowed to take pictures in a girls' classroom at a school. Later, he recalled that he immediately noticed her, but came last, as he felt her embarrassment and confusion. The girl allowed to take pictures, but it never occurred to him to ask or write down her name: “I didn’t think that this photo would be any different from many other pictures that I took that day,” McCurry later said.

But she was different. In June 1985, the photograph appeared on the cover of National Geographic and immediately became a symbol of the Afghan people's struggle for independence. In the 20+ years since its publication, the "Afghan Girl" photograph has become one of the most recognizable images of the time. The photo was replicated by other magazines, appeared on postcards and posters, on the backs of peace fighters in the form of a tattoo, and so on. According to the National Geographic Society USA, she became one of 100 the best photos, and in the late 1990s. Appeared on the cover of National Geographic's collection of photographs. In 2005, the cover of "Afghan Girl" ("Afghan Girl") entered the top ten "Best Magazine Covers of the Past 40 Years".

3. Palestinian martyr

On September 30, 2000, after the outbreak of the second Palestinian intifada, France 2 correspondent Charles Enderlin and cameraman Abu Rahma filmed a shootout between militants and the Israeli military in the Gaza Strip. Two Palestinians - Jamal al-Dura and his son Mohammed, who were under crossfire on one of the streets, got into the frame. The father, according to the authors of the video, was wounded, and the son was killed. The actual moment of the boy's death was not caught on film, but the report showed the child's body with comments that he had died from an Israeli bullet.

The France 2 report received a wide response around the world, and the deceased Mohammed al-Dura actually became a symbol of the second intifada. Israel first apologized publicly for the death of al-Dura, but then several independent investigative journalism concluded that the child had been killed by Palestinian militants. Israel for a long time He did not officially react to the scandal unfolding around the France 2 report - he presented his version of events, laying the blame for what happened on the militants, only in 2007.

4. Famine in Sudan

Kevin Carter won the Pulitzer Prize for "Famine in Sudan", taken in early spring 1993. On this day, Carter flew to Sudan specifically to shoot scenes of hunger in a small village. Tired of shooting people who died of starvation, he left the village in a field overgrown with small bushes and suddenly heard a quiet cry. Looking around, he saw a little girl lying on the ground, apparently dying of hunger. He wanted to take a picture of her, but suddenly a vulture vulture landed a few steps away. Very carefully, trying not to startle the bird, Kevin chose the best position and took a picture. After that, he waited another twenty minutes, hoping that the bird would spread its wings and give him the opportunity to get a better shot. But the damned bird did not move, and in the end, he spat and drove it away. In the meantime, the girl apparently gained strength and went - more precisely crawled - further. And Kevin sat down near the tree and cried. He suddenly terribly wanted to hug his daughter ...

5 Loch Ness Monster

The "surgeon's photograph" is the most famous photograph of the Loch Ness monster and actually started the Loch Ness craziness from this photograph alone. When someone thinks of Nessie, then, without a doubt, this is the photo that comes to mind. The photograph was allegedly taken by the physician R. Kenneth Wilson and his wife in 1934, when they were relaxing near the shores of Loch Ness. Unfortunately for all the "scientists" who spent decades studying Nessie, the photograph was 100% fake.

The monster in the photo is an ordinary toy submarine. The creation of a fake doctor was prompted by a desire to take revenge on the Daily Mail newspaper. A journalist for the publication ridiculed a man named Wetherall after what the man thought were Nessie's footprints on the shore turned out to be the footprints of a hippopotamus. Waverall and his friend and accomplice Wilson decided to humiliate the newspaper with yet another fake, but even after the photo took hold of the minds of the public, they did not confess to what they had done.

6. Self-immolation of a Buddhist monk

The iconic shot was taken in 1963 by photographer Malcolm Brown. For this work, the photographer was awarded the Pulitzer Prize and recognized as the best world press photo of the year.

The Buddhist monk who committed a public act of suicide in protest of the oppression of Buddhism was named Thich Quang Duc. At that time, the first Vietnamese president, Ngo Dinh Diem, pursued a policy of ousting the religion of Buddhism from the country.

At the same time, the photographer from the New York edition of the Associated Press, Malcolm Brown, received a call and was informed that on the morning of June 11 he should appear at a specified location in Saigon. It was reported that a great and historically significant event was to take place there.

The photographer arrived at the specified location exactly on time, taking with him a reporter from the New York Times. Soon a blue "Austin" appeared on the street, from which a group of monks came out, among them was the same Thich Quang Duc. He calmly sat down on the ground in a lotus position, holding a box of matches in his hands. The monks took a can of gasoline and doused Thich Kuang Duc's body with it, then the monk himself lit a match, and soon his body was burning with a bright flame. The most amazing fact in this whole story is that during the process of self-immolation, the monk was remarkably calm. He didn't utter a single word or even change his posture. Only after his body was completely burned did it drop dead. But as it turned out, the monk's heart did not burn, and now it is considered a relic of Buddhism. As well as the blue "Austin", which brought the monks to Saigon.

As it turned out, shortly before the incident, the monk who committed self-immolation sent a letter to the President of Vietnam asking him to stop the widespread repression of Buddhists, not to detain the monks and give them the right to quietly preach their religion. However, there was no response to the letter. And after this terrible performance of the president's brother's wife, Madame Niu, was made on the city street, she said that she was very upset because she could not see how the monk Thich Quang Duc was burning, but she would gladly "clap her hands "on another burning of Buddhists.

7. The last Jew of Vinnitsa

The famous photograph of the execution of the last Jew of the Ukrainian Vinnitsa in 1941, taken by an officer of the German Einsatzgruppe, which was engaged in the execution of persons subject to destruction (primarily Jews). The title of the photo was written on its back.

Vinnitsa was occupied German troops July 19, 1941 Some of the Jews living in the city managed to evacuate. The remaining Jewish population was imprisoned in the ghetto. On July 28, 1941, 146 Jews were shot in the city. In August, the shootings resumed. On September 22, 1941, most of the prisoners of the Vinnitsa ghetto were destroyed (about 28,000 people). Craftsmen, workers and technicians, whose work was necessary for the German occupation authorities, were left alive.

The issue of employing Jewish specialists was discussed at a special meeting in Vinnitsa in early 1942. The participants of the meeting noted that there were five thousand Jews in the city, in their hands "all trades ... they also work in all enterprises of vital importance." The city police chief said that the presence of Jews in the city worries him very much, "because the building being built here [A. Hitler's headquarters] is in danger due to the presence of Jews here." On April 16, 1942, almost all Jews were shot (only 150 specialist Jews were left alive). The last 150 Jews were shot on August 25, 1942. However, the Germans did not manage to destroy all the Jews of Vinnitsa to the last - the Jews hiding in the city participated in the citywide underground. There were at least 17 Jews among the underground workers.

The unknown rebel (also English Tank Man) is the code name by which the man became known, for half an hour he alone held back a column of tanks during the unrest in Tiananmen Square in June 1989. The most famous photograph of him was taken by Jeff Widener, a reporter for the Associated Press, from the sixth floor of the Beijing Hotel. It shows a man standing unarmed in front of a column of Type 59 tanks. The panoramic photo was taken by Stuart Franklin a little earlier and shows 19 tanks of this column.

The footage of a simple Chinese with string bags opposing tanks went around the world, becoming a symbol of what was called "a protest against the tyranny of a totalitarian state." The picture was printed by hundreds of newspapers and magazines around the world, hit the TV news. In April 1998, the American magazine "Time" included "The Unknown Rebel" in the list of the 100 most influential people XX century.

International journalist Vsevolod Ovchinnikov, who was in China at that time, considered this photograph to be "perhaps the only true frame" of those events, comparing it with "frames that captured violence that went around the world as episodes of the" massacre on Tiananmen Square "", which in reality were the result of television.

In 2013, on the 24th anniversary of the events, a version of the picture was circulated on the Internet, in which 4 giant rubber ducks are depicted instead of tanks.

9 Marlborough Street Fire

On July 22, 1975, Boston Herald journalist Stanley Foreman, hearing firefighters' reports of a fire on Marlborough Street, immediately rushed to the scene. At the scene of the fire, the journalist managed to capture a tragic story: firefighters did not have a few seconds to get to the girls Diana Bryant and the very young Tiara Jones who were in trouble. When the fire escape was already close, the flame burst out. The girls flew down. Diana Bryant died, Tiara Jones managed to survive. Subsequently, Foreman was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, but the main thing is that this case drew the attention of the authorities to the problems of fire safety.

10. Lynching of young blacks in Minnesota (USA) in 1930

The Hanged - two Negroes, Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith. They were arrested on charges of murdering a white man and raping his girlfriend. The charge of rape was later not confirmed, only murder. But nobody began to understand. A crowd of more than 2,000 people beat off the arrested from the police (they did not really resist) and hanged them.

11. Banner of Victory on the Reichstag

The world-famous photographs of Yevgeny Khaldei "The Banner of Victory over the Reichstag" depicted the fighters of the 8th guards army Alexey Kovalev, Abdulkhakim Ismailov and Leonid Gorichev.

Khaldei, on the instructions of the TASS Photo Chronicle, took photographs on May 2, 1945, when the street fighting and Berlin was completely occupied Soviet troops. In addition, many red banners were installed on the Reichstag. The photographer asked the first soldiers he met to help take photographs. Soon he filmed two cassettes with them. The banner that Alexey Kovalev is holding in the photo, the photographer brought with him.

In this collection, I want to show you unique shots in the history of mankind.
Construction of the most famous sights of the world, famous people
in memorable moments legendary bands and places captured on black and white film,
and much more can be seen in the sequel.

Charles Godfroy flies through the Arc de Triomphe in Paris on
in his Nieuport 11 aircraft, August 7, 1919.

This is how the capital of Brazil, the city of Brasilia, began to be built.

Construction eiffel tower in Paris, July 1888.

Bomber B-29 "Superfortress" called "Enola Gay"
dropping "Baby" ( atomic bomb) to Hiroshima
During the Second World War. It was the first aircraft to drop
atomic bomb from above.

One of the pictures taken during the photo shoot of The Beatles
for the cover of the Abbey Road album.
There was another picture on the cover - on it the Beatles are walking in a different direction.

Che Guevara and Fidel Castro.

Albert Einstein's Abitur at the age of 17.

Filming a movie " Star Wars inside the iconic Millennium Falcon ship.

The first computer, ENIAC, was made in the USA. He first combined
high-speed electronics with the ability to program
to solve complex problems. He could add or subtract 5,000 times per second.

Untouched seal on the door of the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun.

The first Google team in 1999.

The first Wal-Mart was opened in 1962 by Sam Walton.
Then it was called "Walton`s Five and Dime".

One of the first McDonald`s fast food restaurants,
opened its doors in 1948.

Henry Ford (Founder of Ford Motor Co.), Thomas Edison
(inventor of the phonograph, camera and light bulb)
Warren Harding (publisher) and Harvey Samuel Firestone (founder of
for the production of tires and rubber "Firestone Tire and Rubber Co").

May 28, 1987 18-year-old German Matthias Rust landed on his plane
"Cessna-172B Skyhawk" on Red Square in Moscow.
This case was regarded as a complete failure of air defense Soviet Union.

One of the first photos taken in Hitler's bunker in 1945.

Madonna, Sting and Tupac at the party.

The quagga is an extinct subspecies of the Burchell zebra. Last living quagga
was photographed at the Zoological Society of London in 1870.

Ticket for the Titanic.

Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, 1991

Elvis Presley while serving in the US Army.

The Elvis haircut was very popular with women, 1957.

Luis, 4, and Lola, 2, are survivors of the Titanic.

Frozen Niagara.

Swimming team at the 1948 Olympics.

The real Christopher Robin and Winnie the Pooh are prototypes of famous fairytale heroes. 1926-28

The last photo shoot of The Beatles, August 1969.

Accident on the road: traffic on New York street stopped
because of a cat with a kitten passing through it.

Nikola Tesla's laboratory, 1899.

Yuri Gagarin and Fidel Castro in Havana, 1961

Portrait of Bonnie and Clyde, 1933

Steve Jobs, 1984

Salvador Dali on the set of Phillip Halsman, 1954

Louis Armstrong in Egypt, 1961

Mount Rushmore layout.

Famous architects dressed as their creations:
Stewart Walker (Fuller Building), Leonard Schultze (Waldorf-Astoria),
Ely Jacques Kahn (Squibb Building), William Van Alen (Chrysler Building),
Ralph Walker (1 Wall Street), D.E. Ward (Metropolitan Tower),
Joseph H. Freelander (Museum of New York).

Fairies from Cottingley. Francis Way and Elsie Hill cut out cardboard men,
photographed them and passed them off as real fairies.
At the beginning of the 20th century, this story made a lot of noise, and still photographs
magical men are considered one of the most talented hoaxes of the 20th century.

Portrait of a woman with tea pairs on her chest, 1890.

In our age, there is only one way to get rich, become famous and go down in history as a photographer - by doing anything, but not photography. One hundred years ago, you could easily have become a great photo artist, since there were two key prerequisites:

a. photography was a complex, troublesome and little known craft;

b. Slowly, technologies arose and were introduced that made it possible to reproduce photographs in newspapers and (a little later) in color magazines.

That is, the glorious moment has come when, by pressing the shutter button, you already understood that millions will see this frame. But these millions did not yet know that they could do the same, since there were no digital soapboxes, full automation and photo dumps on the Internet. Well, talent, of course. You have no competition!

The golden era of photography, perhaps, should be recognized as the middle of the last century. However, many of the artists listed on our list belong to other distant and modern eras.

Helmut Newton, Germany, 1920–2004

A little more than a great and famous fashion photographer with a very, very independent understanding of what eroticism is. Was furiously demanded by almost all glossy magazines, Vogue, Elle and Playboy in the first place. He died at the age of 84 after crashing his car into a concrete wall at full speed.

Richard Avedon, USA, 1923-2004

The god of the black and white portrait, also interesting in that digging through his galleries, you will find anyone. There is absolutely everything in the pictures of this brilliant New York Jew. They say that Richard took his first picture at the age of nine, when the kid accidentally caught Sergei Rachmaninov in the lens.

Henri Cartier-Bresson, France, 1908–2004

An outstanding photorealist, one of the patriarchs of photo reporting and at the same time an invisible man: he had a filigree gift to be able to remain visible to those he shoots. At first he studied as an artist, where he earned a craving for light surrealism, which was then tangibly imprinted in his photographs.

Sebastian Salgado, Brazil, 1944

Creator of almost fantastic images taken from the real world. Salgado was a photojournalist who was especially attracted to anomalies, misfortunes, poverty and environmental disasters - but even such stories of his fascinate with beauty. In 2014, director Wim Wenders made a film about him called "Salt of the Earth" (special prize at the Cannes Film Festival).

William Eugene Smith, USA, 1918-1978

A photojournalist, perhaps famous for everything a photojournalist can become famous for - from canonical military photographs to expressive and touching portraits of the great and ordinary people. Below, as an example, are frames from a session with Charlie Chaplin for Life magazine.

Guy Bourdain, France, 1928-1991

One of the most copied, imitated photographers in the world. Erotic, surreal. Now - a quarter of a century after his death - more and more relevant and modern.

Vigi (Arthur Fellig), USA, 1899-1968

Emigrant from of Eastern Europe, now - the great classic of street and criminal photography. A person managed to arrive at any incident in New York - be it a fire, a murder or a banal scuffle - faster than other paparazzi and, often, the police. However, in addition to all sorts of emergencies, almost all aspects of life in the poorest quarters of the metropolis are noted in his photographs. Based on his photo, the film noir Naked City (1945) was shot, Stanley Kubrick studied from his shots, and Weegee himself is mentioned at the beginning of the comic film Watchmen (2009).

Alexander Rodchenko, USSR, 1891–1956

A pioneer of Soviet design and advertising, Rodchenko, for all that, is a pioneer of constructivism. He was expelled from the Union of Artists for departing from the ideals and style of socialist realism, but, fortunately, it did not come to the camps - he died a natural death at the dawn of the Khrushchev "thaw".

Irvin Penn, USA, 1917–2009

Master of portrait and fashion genre. He is famous for a whole abundance of his own crown chips - for example, to shoot people in the corner of a room or against all sorts of gray, ascetic backgrounds. Famous for the catchphrase: "Shooting a cake can also be art."

Anton Corbijn, Netherlands, 1955

The world's most prominent rock photographer whose ascent began with iconic photographs and video clips for Depeche Mode and U2. His handwriting is easily recognizable - strong defocus and atmospheric noise. Corbijn also directed several films: Control (a biography of the Joy Division frontman), The American (with George Clooney) and The Most a dangerous person(Based on the novel by Le Carré). If you Google the famous photos of Nirvana, Metallica, or Tom Waits, there's almost a 100% chance that Corbijn's photos will come up first.

Steven Meisel, USA, 1954

One of the most successful fashion photographers in the world, whose name became especially popular in 1992 after the release of Madonna's photo book "Sex". Considered the discoverer of many catwalk superstars such as Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista or Amber Valletta.

Diana Arbus, USA, 1923-1971

Her real name is Diana Nemerova, and she found her niche in photography by working with the most unattractive nature - freaks, dwarfs, transvestites, feeble-minded ... At best, with nudists. In 2006, the biopic Fur was released, where the role of Diana was played by Nicole Kidman.

David LaChapelle, USA, 1963

Master of pop photography ("pop" in good sense words) LaChapelle, in particular, shot videos for Britney Spears, Jennifer Lopez and Christina Aguilera, so you will understand his style not only from the photo frames.

Marc Riboud, France, (1923-2016)

The author of at least a dozen “prints of the era”: you must have seen a hippie girl a million times bring a chamomile to the barrel of a rifle. Riboud has traveled all over the world and is most revered for his portfolio of filming in China and Vietnam, although you can also find his scenes from the life of the Soviet Union. Died at the age of 93.

Elliott Erwitt, France, 1928

A Frenchman with Russian roots, famous for his ironic and absurd look at our troubled world, which is very moving in his still photographs. Not so long ago, he also began to exhibit in galleries under the name André S. Solidor, which is abbreviated as "ass".

Patrick Demarchelier, France/USA, 1943

It is still a living classic of fashion photography, which enriched this genre with a particularly sophisticated sophistication. And at the same time, he reduced the transcendental degree of glamorous overdress, which was the norm before him.

Annie Leibovitz, USA, 1949

A master of fairy-tale plots with a very powerful charge of wit, understandable even to simpletons, far from hyperglamour. Which is not surprising, since the lesbian Annie started out as a staff photographer for Rolling Stone magazine.

Thousands of photographers work around the world, capturing events, places, people and animals every day, producing hundreds of thousands of photographs. But only a few become globally known, replicated, used in modern culture and are called photo icons. And each of these photos has its own story ...

The photo of Ernesto Che Guevara in a black beret is recognized as a symbol of the 20th century, the most famous and most reproduced photograph in the world. It was taken on March 5, 1960 in Havana during a memorial service for the victims of the explosion of the ship La Coubre, its author, Alberto Korda, then the official photographer of Fidel Castro, said that at that moment he was shocked by the expression on the face of 31-year-old Che, on which "absolute intransigence", anger and pain were written simultaneously. At the same time, Che appeared in the photographer's viewfinder only for a couple of seconds after Fidel's heated speech (in which the famous words "Patria O Muerte" were used for the first time), and then again retreated into the shadows. The photo was rejected by the editor of the magazine "Revolution", and this upset Korda, who was convinced of the power of this work. He cropped the picture, printed it out in several copies, hung one on the wall at home, and gave the rest to friends. Since this all started. By the way, Korda never asked for royalties for the use and reproduction of this photo, but was against the commercial use of Che's image. Especially in advertising those products that the Comandante would never have supported. Alberto sued, for example, agencies Lowe Lintas and Rex Features when they started selling Smirnoff vodka using this picture. He won $50,000, which he immediately donated to Cuban medicine.

Einstein turned 72 on the day this photograph was taken. On March 14, 1951, almost all publications photographed him, and he was very tired and annoyed. UPI photographer Arthur Sasse was one of the last, and he worked hard to get Einstein to smile. But the greatest mind of the twentieth century showed the photographer his tongue instead. In 2009, the original photograph of the mischievous Einstein was auctioned off for $74,324.

The most famous photograph of one of Britain's most famous and revered politicians was taken under rather amusing circumstances. As you know, Churchill never parted with his cigar, including in photographs. And when photographer Yusuf Karsh came to him to shoot, he was not going to change himself. Yusuf first delicately placed an ashtray in front of the Prime Minister, but he ignored it, and the photographer had to say “I'm sorry, sir” and pull the cigar from Churchill himself. “When I returned to the camera, he looked as if he wanted to devour me,” Karsh, the author of one of the most expressive portraits of all time, later recalled.

National Geographic magazine in 1984 set out to trace the genetic path of green eyes, which began in the time of Genghis Khan. While researching and collecting material for the Green Eyes project, photographer Steve McCurry photographed an Afghan girl who, as it turned out 17 years later, was named Sharbat Gula (Sharbat Gula). A shot of a frightened, wide-eyed refugee beauty was featured on the cover of National Geographic in 1985 and has since become a world-famous symbol of the Afghan conflict and the suffering of refugees around the world. Now the photo is even called the “Afghan Mona Lisa”. By the time the National Geographic team found Sharbat, she was already about thirty, she returned to her native Afghanistan and had never seen this photo before meeting with NG and did not know about her worldwide fame.

The photograph of Robert Capa, taken on September 5, 1936, has long been a symbol of the bloody and ruthless Spanish civil war. It depicts an armed militiaman in civilian clothes falling backwards after being fatally shot by an enemy. The photo is very emotional, dramatic, capturing a terrible moment - that's why it instantly gained popularity, but at the same time, doubts from a part of society. And now almost no one doubts that the cult shot was a production. Firstly, it was not made at the site of the fighting, but a few kilometers from it. And secondly, Federico Borrell García, who tragically died in a photograph in an open field and was then identified, was actually shot while trying to hide behind a tree.

And this picture is not staged, and for more than 40 years people have been watching the endless execution of the Viet Cong Nguyen Van Lem by General Nguyen Ngoc Loan. Photographer Eddie Adams has documented thirteen wars, but his most famous photograph is this one taken on February 1, 1968. For which he later had to apologize. The picture instantly spread through newspapers and news agencies, everyone in the States spoke about it, many with reproach and indignation - what is on it is too scary. Eddie claimed that it was not a planned shot, that it was some kind of reflex, and he did not even know what he shot until he developed the film. And having shown, I realized that it is impossible to hush up this. But later he wrote in Time: “The general killed the Viet Cong, I killed the general with my camera. Pictures are still the most powerful weapon in the world. People believe them, but the photographs lie, even without such intentions. They are only half true. The photo didn't say, "What would you do if you were that general at the time and place on that hot day when you caught the so-called bad guy after he blew up one, two, or three Americans?" While General Nguyen was still alive, Adams apologized to him and his family for the irreparable damage that this photograph had done to the general's honor.

Another world famous photo Vietnam War is no longer as ambiguous as the previous one. This is a symbol of the horror and suffering of innocent people who fall "under the distribution" along with the military. The image, taken by South Vietnamese photographer Nick Ut, shows people running from the napalm that the South Vietnamese military pours on the village. The logical center of the composition is a naked girl who screams in horror and pain. This is nine-year-old Kim Fook, she has terrible third-degree burns on her back and back of her legs, and she is trying to escape. After taking a picture, Nick picked up the girl and took her and other injured children to the hospital. The doctors were sure that she would not survive, but after 14 months in the hospital and 17 operations, Kim Fook became practically healthy. The photographer constantly visited her both in the hospital and after her discharge, until he left Saigon three years later. Kim is still alive today, she devoted her life to medicine and helping children victims of wars. Sometimes she gives interviews and participates in talk shows: “Napalm is the most terrible pain you can imagine. Water boils at 100 degrees, and napalm has a temperature of 800 to 1200. Forgiveness freed me from hatred. I still have a lot of scars on my body and I am in a lot of pain almost all the time, but my heart is clear. Napalm is strong, but faith, forgiveness and love are much stronger. We wouldn't have wars at all if everyone could figure out how to live with true love, hope, and forgiveness. If that little girl in the photo could do it, ask yourself if you can too?”

Photography is a symbol of the confrontation between the power of weapons and the strength of the human spirit. A single person walked out in front of a column of tanks near Beijing's Tiananmen Square during the June 1989 riots. In his hands he had two ordinary plastic bag, with which he threatened the tanks when they stopped. The first tank made an attempt to bypass the man, but he again stood in his way. After several unsuccessful attempts to bypass it, the tanks turned off the engines, and the commander of the first one spoke to the stubborn peacekeeper. Then he again tried to go around him, and the man again stood in front of the tank. Four photographers captured the moment, but the world-famous photograph was that of Jeff Widener, long banned in China. The man was never identified, but he was included by Time magazine in the list of the 100 most important people twentieth century.

This shocking photograph not only shows the suffering of children in Sudan during the 1993 famine, but also tells the story of the emotional suffering of the photographer who took the picture. Kevin Carter won a Pulitzer Prize for this photo and blew his car's exhaust into the cabin two months later. Little exhausted girl crawling towards the camp humanitarian aid, stopped to rest, and at that time a hungry vulture dived into the clearing and walked in circles in anticipation of the death of a child. Kevin waited 20 minutes before the shot got good enough for him. And only then drove the vulture away, and the girl crawled on. A wave of criticism hit Carter and the most prestigious journalistic award. But he could not live with various financial problems, with what he saw in Sudan, and with what he himself participated in. In July 1994, he committed suicide.

The most famous kiss in the world was filmed by Albert Eisenstadt in Times Square during the celebration of Victory Day over Japan on August 14, 1945. During the crowded noisy festivities, Eisenstadt did not have time to ask the names of the heroes of the picture, and therefore they remained unknown for a long time. It was only in 1980 that it was possible to establish that the nurse in the photograph was Edith Shane. But the name of the sailor is still a mystery - 11 people said that it was them, but they could not prove it. Here is what Eisenstadt said about the moment of shooting: “I saw a sailor running down the street and grabbing any girl who was in his field of vision. Whether she was old or young, fat or thin, he didn't care. I ran ahead of him with my Leica looking back over my shoulder, but I didn't like any of the pictures. Then all of a sudden I saw him grab someone in white. I turned around and filmed the moment the sailor kissed the nurse. If she was wearing dark clothes, I would never have photographed them. As if the sailor was in a white uniform. I took 4 photos in a few seconds, but only one satisfied me.”

From our review it is clear that the most famous photographs in history were obtained without hours of preparatory work, without careful study of the plot. Created in a second - live for decades.

Afghan Mona Lisa, Gule Sharbat at the time of shooting 12 years old. As a result of the attack of her city by Soviet helicopters, her parents were killed, and Gula herself, with her grandmother, brothers and sisters, fled to a camp on the border with Pakistan. It was there that the lens of Steve McCurry "caught" it in 1984 - the picture became famous thanks to getting on the cover of National Geographic a year later. Now Gula is married to a baker and they have three children.

New York, 1932. Eleven builders decided to have a bite to eat in front of the lens of Charles Ebbets. True, hundreds of meters of air are below them, and at the very bottom are the busy streets of Manhattan. The shooting location is the construction site of Rockefeller Center, a complex of business buildings in the center of Manhattan, which until 1989 belonged to the Rockefeller family, but even after the sale to the Mitsubishi concern, they did not change their name.

The legendary staged photo of the great military photojournalist Yevgeny Khaldei - the photographer brought the banner to the location with him, and also asked several fighters he accidentally met to pose for him. These were the fighters of the 8th Guards Army Alexei Kovalev (holding the banner), Abdulkhakim Ismailov and Leonid Gorichev. Photo taken May 2, 1945.

The photo was taken on August 14, 1945, the so-called V-J Day (Victory over Japan Day) - a symbol of the end of the war for the Americans, the surrender of Japan. The creator of the photo, Alfred Eisenstadt, called it "unconditional surrender."

Inventive photoshop: a tourist allegedly stands on one of the buildings of the World Trade Center, which is about to crash into one of the liners. Initially, it was claimed that the "tourist" was found on the ruins of the twin towers. The photo was taken in 1997: it shows a 25-year-old tourist from Hungary, Peter Guzli, who added the plane to the picture later. "Tourist" has become one of the heroes of photo memes, like or Stoned Fox.

The most famous photographic "fake". Photo allegedly taken by village surgeon Robert Wilson - actually wooden layout loch ness monster was made by his fellow villager Marmaduke Wetherell and his son. The picture was taken by Marmaduke, and then he persuaded Wilson to take over the authorship. The scam was revealed in 1994, when the son of Marmadyuk confessed to his deed.

On his birthday - and the hero of the picture turned 72 years old - Einstein was feasting at Princeton University. After the party, he got into a car with a colleague and his wife, they were surrounded by photographers, and one of them, Artur Szas, asked the professor to smile. Einstein's colleague lowered the glass, and the birthday boy... proved that age has no power over geniuses.

The grave of a Catholic wife and a Protestant husband, who could not be buried side by side, is located in the city of Limburg, the Netherlands.

One of the most famous photo portraits in history made by the great portrait painter Yusuf Karsh. Winston Churchill turned out to be formidable because a few moments before the flash, the photographer took away his cigar.

In a few minutes, Shug Knight's car (driving) will be shot by unknown people from a white Cadillac - Shug will receive minor injuries from glass fragments, the great rapper will die a little later in the hospital from injuries to the chest, pelvis and thigh. Some of the ashes will be smoked by Tupac's friends mixed with marijuana.