An image can express untold emotions. That’s why photography is a marvellous tool for capturing history. It is an art that lives on moments. A single image can represent an entire decade of events or even introduce us to an unknown culture.
We all have images of deeds in our retinas that are recorded in our memory. There are photographs that we immediately relate to a historical event, right?
We would now like to show you some of the photographs that have marked history that we like best. Take note!
- Lunch Atop a Skyscraper, 1932
This photograph could well represent Workers’ Day. The photographer was Charles C. Ebbets and it was published in the photographic supplement of the New York Herald Tribune during the Great Depression. It was a time of high unemployment and workers had to live through very tough working conditions.
A Man on the Moon, 1969
20th July 1969 was a day that will always stick in our memory because it was the day on which man took the first step on the moon. Neil Armstrong’s, Edwin Aldrin’s and Michael Collins’ faces evidenced this fact.
End of the War in Times Square, 1945
This photograph, published in Life magazine, was taken on Victory over Japan Day on 14th August 1945 when the Allied Forces defeated Japan. Alfred Eisenstaedt captured this moment of a U.S. Navy sailor kissing a nurse in Times Square.
- Dali Atomicus, 1948
Philippe Halsman and Salvador Dali got together one evening in 1948 to take a photograph that would demonstrate suspension in mid-air and after quite a few attempts, plenty of water and three somewhat frightened cats, they created the incredible image titled Dali Atomicus.
- Leap Into Freedom, 1961
One of the greatest visual icons of the 20th century is this photograph by Peter Leibing who captured the exact moment when a young East German border guard cleared the barbed wire barrier into West Germany.
- Raising the flag on Iwo Jima, 1945
Joe Rosenthal took this iconic photograph during World War II on the Japanese island of Iwo Jima. It became so famous that a commemorative statue was built, reproducing the original image, dedicated to all the soldiers who died defending their country.
- Abbey Road Cover of The Beatles, 1969
You will certainly find this photograph of the famous music group of The Beatles on a zebra crossing familiar. It became the cover picture of their album.
- Sharbat Gula, the Afghan Girl, 1984
Surely you have seen this image of a young Afghan girl with the piercing green eyes. This photograph appeared on the cover of the famous National Geographic magazine. That is how the entire world discovered Sharbat Gula, a 12-year-old refugee in Pakistan.
- ‘The Kiss’ Between Brezhnev and Honecker, 1979
When we think of Berlin and its recent history of a city divided by the Berlin Wall, the first image that comes to mind is that of the famous mural “The Kiss”. This image from 1979 captures the kiss between the Soviet leader, Leonid Brezhnev, and the President of the GDR, Erich Honecker, during the 30th anniversary celebrations of the German Democratic Republic (GDR).
