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It's perhaps one of the most overused clichs ever, but it's hard to deny that in some cases a picture really is worth a thousand words. Artistic photography can is a fascinating use of the medium. However, documentary photography is probably the purest and most powerful form. It has the ability to highlight injustice or suffering, but it can also give people hope.
Often, when photographers find themselves in warzones or at scenes of natural disasters, they are thrown into a challenging moral predicament. Their journalistic instinct is to document what they see and bring it to the attention of the wider world, but this often means they are watching terrible things happen and not intervening to prevent the suffering they witness. At the same time, photographers often put their own lives on the line, and many have paid the ultimate price in their efforts to get to the centre of the action.
One image, taken in Vietnam by Nick Ut in 1972, completely typifies the moral predicament war photographers face, whilst also conveying the risks they take. The photo shows a group of Vietnamese children fleeing in terror from a US napalm attack. At the centre of the image is a naked, badly burned girl named Kim Phuc, crying out in despair. The photo was shocked people around the world, displaying the consequences of America's tactics with uncompromising directness.
It's not just journalists that take photos that shock the world - in 1941, an SS soldier took a photo now known as The Last Jew of Vinnista. Found in his personal album after the war, this truly disturbing image shows an emaciated Jewish man perched on the edge of the open mass grave of a Nazi death camp. Behind him, one of the guards is holding a pistol against the back of his skull with his finger hovering chillingly over the trigger. When WWII began, there were at least 28,000 Jews living in the Ukranian city of Vinnista. None of them escaped.
Photos like these get their power from their uncompromising portrayal of humanity at its worst, but there also are many images celebrating human achievements that deserve an equal place in history. One example, taken whilst under enemy fire, is US Marine photographer Joe Rosenthal's unforgettable shot of four American soldiers courageously raising the American flag on Mount Surbachi, Japan, as WWII approached its conclusion. Another photo that beautifully symbolises the human spirit at its best is Buzz Aldrin's 1969 shot of the first human footprint on the Moon. The footprint, which poignantly encapsulates our instinctive fascination with the unknown, will remain there for millions of years.
Often, when photographers find themselves in warzones or at scenes of natural disasters, they are thrown into a challenging moral predicament. Their journalistic instinct is to document what they see and bring it to the attention of the wider world, but this often means they are watching terrible things happen and not intervening to prevent the suffering they witness. At the same time, photographers often put their own lives on the line, and many have paid the ultimate price in their efforts to get to the centre of the action.
One image, taken in Vietnam by Nick Ut in 1972, completely typifies the moral predicament war photographers face, whilst also conveying the risks they take. The photo shows a group of Vietnamese children fleeing in terror from a US napalm attack. At the centre of the image is a naked, badly burned girl named Kim Phuc, crying out in despair. The photo was shocked people around the world, displaying the consequences of America's tactics with uncompromising directness.
It's not just journalists that take photos that shock the world - in 1941, an SS soldier took a photo now known as The Last Jew of Vinnista. Found in his personal album after the war, this truly disturbing image shows an emaciated Jewish man perched on the edge of the open mass grave of a Nazi death camp. Behind him, one of the guards is holding a pistol against the back of his skull with his finger hovering chillingly over the trigger. When WWII began, there were at least 28,000 Jews living in the Ukranian city of Vinnista. None of them escaped.
Photos like these get their power from their uncompromising portrayal of humanity at its worst, but there also are many images celebrating human achievements that deserve an equal place in history. One example, taken whilst under enemy fire, is US Marine photographer Joe Rosenthal's unforgettable shot of four American soldiers courageously raising the American flag on Mount Surbachi, Japan, as WWII approached its conclusion. Another photo that beautifully symbolises the human spirit at its best is Buzz Aldrin's 1969 shot of the first human footprint on the Moon. The footprint, which poignantly encapsulates our instinctive fascination with the unknown, will remain there for millions of years.
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