Capturing humanity through the looking glass......

[IDLEchild]

....haunting, contemplative, embrosial or downright heart breaking. In the last century so much has been engraved, so much has been set in stone through the lense of a camera and every now and then a picture is taken which stops most of its viewers in their tracks.

One example of a such picture for me is of the burning monk. The self immolation of Thich Quang Duc.

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."

source


Another picture which always manages to crawl under my skin is.

Her name is Sharbat Gula. She's the married mother of three girls and living in a remote ethnic Pushtun region of Afghanistan with her family. National Geographic is keeping her exact location secret to protect her privacy.

This is highly revered image which is just amazing. It is sad that living in such a harsh land has taken a toll on most of her piercing beauty.

source

 

[IDLEchild]

Another picture which always disturbes me is

General Nguyen Ngoc Loan excuting a viet cong prisoner.

But when Brig. Gen. Nguyen Ngoc Loan raised his pistol on Feb. 1, 1968, extended his arm and fired a bullet through the head of the prisoner, who stood with his hands tied behind his back, the general did so in full view of an NBC cameraman and an Associated Press photographer.

And when the film was shown on television and the picture appeared on the front pages of newspapers around the world, the images created an immediate revulsion at a seemingly gratuitous act of savagery that was widely seen as emblematic of a seemingly gratuitous war.

The photograph, by Eddie Adams, was especially vivid, a frozen moment that put a wincing face of horror on the war. Taken almost at once with the squeeze of the trigger, the photo showed the prisoner, unidentified and wearing black shorts and a plaid shirt, in a final grimace as the bullet passed through his brain. Close examination of the photo, which won a Pulitzer Prize in 1969, showed the slug leaving his head.

source

I don't know what I could say about this image that hasn't been said or what the image itself can't portray.



So what are some of the most chilling, shocking, awe inspiring etc etc images or vidoes have you seen?

 

[Shadowfax]

i knew the one of the woman, but have never seen the other two. makes you quiet. i know a few pictures, but i'll need some time to find them.

i'll post tomorrow. thanks for sharing these.

 

[Shadowfax]

everybody knows this picture...but the story behind it is vague. different facts have been brought up in the past years: was this the result of a napalm attack, or was this (accidently) caused by the girls countrymen themselves?

the results are shocking, no matter what caused it. the story of a girl named Kim Phuk. still sends shivers down my spine.

 

[Shadowfax]

another shocking image, taken by Kevin Carter. the picture won the Pulitzer Prize. it shows a vulture, waiting for a Sudanese child to die of starvation.
carter killed himself in '94, after all the things he had seen.

 

[freako104]

I wonder where humanity went wrong. very disturbing pics

 

[Rose]

I wonder where humanity went wrong. very disturbing pics

Who says humanity went wrong at all?


these are very disturbingn pictures. I've not seen a couple, and have seen a couple.

Shadow - I've not seen the one you posted of the children running. Creepy.

 

[Gonz]

IC, a better choice than NPR.

I've seen them all & know the stories. The one problem with photography, it catches teh barbarism or the heartbreak but it does nothing to tell the story.

 

[freako104]

Who says humanity went wrong at all?


these are very disturbingn pictures. I've not seen a couple, and have seen a couple.

Shadow - I've not seen the one you posted of the children running. Creepy.

If we didnt we would have tried to stop suffering such as what the pictures show

 

[Gonz]

One image of 1000 does not a story make

 

[Luis G]

I wonder if these so called photographers ever try to help?, like giving that boy some food.

Sure take the damn picture if you're so damn eager about it, but at least try to help afterwards.

 

[Shadowfax]

The one problem with photography, it catches teh barbarism or the heartbreak but it does nothing to tell the story.

i don't agree with that statement per se. so often do facial expressions show what is happening. one picture can say more than a 1,000 words...which often goes for photo's like these. but you do have a point; pictures are just a snapshot. one instant later there can be a totally different situation, which isn't shown in the previous picture.

luis - that's something i wonder about often as well. the pictures of people so close to death, and nobody helps them. but i think that often, these pictures are nothing more than a snapshot; that one second where they could take the picture, and due to insight and luck it catches the moment.
for instance, the picture of the sudanese child; was the photographer walking by, or was he in a car with military people, going to a meeting while he saw the child?

besides that, how hard it may be, you can't always help everyone. i've seen people (children as well) who had close to nothing. no food, no shelter, nothing. some of them are probably dead by now. terrifying thought, but i alone can't help them all. a person does what he can, but there are limits. same goes for the photographers; i can only imagine the horror they see in their lives. kevin carter didn't commit suicide out of the blue.

 

[Gonz]

It does nothing to tell the story. It does much to show an effect of the story.

As far as feeding that child. As cruel as it may sound, by that point it was too late for anything to be done. It may have been kinder to put a bullet through the childs temple.

The suicide had nothing to do with what was witnessed. This stuff is as old as humanity & has all been witnessed before. He had different problems.

 

[freako104]

your right. sometimes death is more merciful then letting someone live.

 

[Thulsa Doom]

I wonder if these so called photographers ever try to help?, like giving that boy some food.

Sure take the damn picture if you're so damn eager about it, but at least try to help afterwards.

actually Kevin Carter took the pictures then immediatly ran over and shooed the bird away and took the child back to a refuge camp where it could at least be taken care of. but the child was too far gone. at least thats what Ive heard about that famous picture. Carter recieved death threats for years because of that picture and because of some of his work in pre-democratic south africa. Some people even went out of their way to write and say that they could hardly eat their breakfast because of the picture and Carter should be ashamed. And you wonder why he killed himself? Anyone who thinks it was wrong to take such a picture is an idiot in my book as all you have to do is look at the impact of the picture as it made its way into the concsiousness of hudreds of millions of people around the world. that one picture alone caused millions of dollars to be poured into the sudan and other poor regions in africa because of the anguish it caused. is that not a good thing? certainly it changed the concsiousness of many many people and inspired many people to do more then just cluck about how sad it is that faceless people are starving in the far reaches of the world while sipping on their star bucks. that picture inspired doctors to give up their lucrative practices in america and europe and go to africa to help in some way. that picture did a lot. so we should thank Carter in my opinion. Not be disgusted with the subject matter of his photography.