I think there's a big difference between "changing the world" and changing people's mindsets. Ansel Adams I absolutely love and adore, but he changed people's perceptions about photography -- that's all he did. Ben & Jerry changed my perception about ice cream. SFW?
I think Tank Man does belong on the list. There's no WAY that the Napalm Girl should be off the list -- it's right up there with the Vietcong Execution as to the souring of the perception of the war -- after all, it was AMERICAN napalm, and this was one of the first times Americans really got a look at just how their government decided to fight that war.
Some of the list above are absolutely spot on, but Hindenburg? No. I have the Einstein photo on my fridge, but that had no impact on the world, all it did was show that he had a personality. Ditto with Ghandi. Portraits don't change anything -- except when they're of the Migrant working mother. That's reality -- that's capturing pain in a moment in time and exposing what's real. That's what photography is about.
Life's book "100 Photographs that Changed the World" are really bang on. http://digitaljournalist.org/issue0309/lm_index.html
And how does the photo of Hiroshima not rate? A mushroom cloud hiding the deaths of 150,000 people transpiring in an instant? For the first time we really, really saw the power of technology and science and war and we learned just how horrifically destructive we are as a people. That changed us all forever. Hearing about it and knowing the facts and figures was something, but seeing it... Well.
Then there are the lynchings from 1930. http://www.digitaljournalist.org/issue0309/lm18.html
It's a big-ass list, to be sure. I found this list interesting, but I disagree with about half of them as far as their importance goes. Still, nice effort.
I think Tank Man does belong on the list. There's no WAY that the Napalm Girl should be off the list -- it's right up there with the Vietcong Execution as to the souring of the perception of the war -- after all, it was AMERICAN napalm, and this was one of the first times Americans really got a look at just how their government decided to fight that war.
Some of the list above are absolutely spot on, but Hindenburg? No. I have the Einstein photo on my fridge, but that had no impact on the world, all it did was show that he had a personality. Ditto with Ghandi. Portraits don't change anything -- except when they're of the Migrant working mother. That's reality -- that's capturing pain in a moment in time and exposing what's real. That's what photography is about.
Life's book "100 Photographs that Changed the World" are really bang on. http://digitaljournalist.org/issue0309/lm_index.html
And how does the photo of Hiroshima not rate? A mushroom cloud hiding the deaths of 150,000 people transpiring in an instant? For the first time we really, really saw the power of technology and science and war and we learned just how horrifically destructive we are as a people. That changed us all forever. Hearing about it and knowing the facts and figures was something, but seeing it... Well.
Then there are the lynchings from 1930.
http://www.digitaljournalist.org/issue0309/lm18.html
It's a big-ass list, to be sure. I found this list interesting, but I disagree with about half of them as far as their importance goes. Still, nice effort.