20th century in photographs. The most famous photos in the world: XX century in photographs

Since photography was invented, this way of capturing reality has become a real art. The editors of the site invite you to recall the most famous photographs in the history of mankind.

Afghan Madonna

A photograph of a twelve-year-old girl taken in 1985 in a Pakistani refugee camp made the cover of National Geographic magazine and became a symbol of the war in Afghanistan. The haunted look of a teenage girl seems to look straight into the soul and in her eyes the expression seems to change. Because of this, the portrait has been compared to Da Vinci's Mona Lisa.

The editors of the site notes that photographer Steve McCurry did not recognize the name of the girl. Her identity was established only in 2002. It turned out that an Afghan woman named Sharbat Gula returned to her homeland in 1992, got married and gave birth to several children.

Kiss in Times Square

Alfred Eisenstadt's photograph of a sailor and nurse kissing in New York's Times Square has become a global symbol of the joy and relief associated with the end of World War II. The photographer who shot for Life magazine did not ask the names of his models, and many people claimed that they were the ones in the picture.

The book on the history of this photo claims that these people are named George Mendonsa and Greta Zimmer Friedman. “Suddenly I was in the arms of a sailor,” Friedman recalled in 2005. “It wasn’t even a kiss, actually, but a spontaneous act of happiness and relief that he no longer had to go to war.”

Even five decades after her death, Marilyn Monroe remains one of Hollywood's most famous sex symbols. And the first image of her that comes to everyone's mind is this picture taken during the filming of the movie The Seven Year Itch. Marilyn is standing on the sidewalk, and the warm air coming out of the New York subway lifts the hem of her white dress. It is said that the then-husband of the star, the famous baseball player Joe DiMaggio, after seeing this frame, gave Monroe a terrible scene of jealousy. A few weeks later they divorced.

Napalm

In 1972, Associated Press photographer Nick Ut captured children fleeing in terror from a napalm attack during the Vietnam War. The bomber accidentally dropped a napalm charge on his own soldiers and civilians. Nine-year-old Kim Phuk flees a bombed-out village after ripping off her burning clothes. The photo has become one of the most famous symbols of the Vietnam War protest. After taking a picture, Nick took the children to the Saigon hospital.

Einstein with his tongue hanging out

At Albert Einstein's 72nd birthday party, photographer Arthur Sass asked the birthday boy to smile for the camera. Tired of such requests, the Nobel laureate suddenly stuck out his tongue. The photo became one of Einstein's most famous images, and he liked it so much that he ordered nine copies for himself. One of the photographs signed by Einstein was sold at auction in 2009 for more than $75,000.

falling man

Richard Drew was able to film the flight of one of the victims of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. The publication of the photo caused a lot of protests from people who called the reporter insensitive. The reporter himself sees it differently. Ten years after the event, he said in an interview that he considered this picture to be an image of the “unknown soldier”, representing all who shared his fate that day. At least 200 people are believed to have jumped out of the WTC windows after two airliners crashed into the Twin Towers.

The most famous selfie in the world

At the 2014 Academy Awards, where 12 Years a Slave turned out to be better than Gravity, several first-class Hollywood stars were caught in a famous selfie by comedian Ellen DeGeneres, host of the ceremony. The picture shows: Jared Leto, Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep, Ellen herself, Bradley Cooper, Peter Nyong'o, Channing Tatum, as well as Julia Roberts, Kevin Spacey, Lupita Nyong'o, Angelina Jolie and her now ex-husband Brad Pitt.

No film can boast such a stellar cast. No wonder internet users retweeted this photo over a million times in just the first hour after it was posted. The photo caused more noise than the Oscar ceremony itself.

man vs tanks

An unarmed man stopped a tank column in Beijing during a student demonstration in 1989. Then, hundreds of demonstrators were killed by bullets from the People's Liberation Army of China on Tiananmen Square. The moment, captured by at least five reporters, has become a symbol of unarmed resistance to state violence around the world. Charlie Cole, photographer for Newsweek magazine, won a World Press Photo award for this image. The identity and fate of the man standing in the way of armored vehicles remained unknown.

Portrait of Che Guevara

Alberto Korda photographed Marxist revolutionary Ernesto Che Guevara in 1960 at a ceremony dedicated to the victims of the explosion of the Belgian ship La Couvre in Havana. The portrait, called by the author "Partisan Hero", was replicated on millions of posters and T-shirts, becoming a universal symbol of resistance and social justice. The photographer, who shared Che's Marxist ideals, never demanded royalties for this shot.

Explosion of the Hindenburg

In 1937, Sam Shear photographed the explosion of the hydrogen-filled airship Hindenburg in New Jersey. The plane crash, which claimed the lives of thirty-six people, marked the end of the era of passenger zeppelins, until then considered the main means of transportation in the future. “There were two blank shots left in my camera, and I didn’t even have time to bring the camera up to my eyes,” Scheer later wrote. “I shot literally from the hip – everything happened so quickly that there was nothing else to do.”

Hunger

A 1993 photograph by Kevin Carter illustrating famine in South Sudan garnered worldwide attention - and criticism. Carter said the emaciated girl made it to the food stand after the photographer chased off the vulture, but that only raised more questions as to why he didn't take her there himself. The editors of the site notes that a few months after receiving the Pulitzer Prize for this picture, the South African photographer committed suicide. He suffered from depression and the loss of his friend and colleague Ken Osterbrock, who was killed by a peacekeeper's accidental bullet near Johannesburg.

Nessie

A photo of the Loch Ness Monster, taken by British military surgeon Robert Wilson in 1934 in Scotland, made a lot of noise and for a long time was considered irrefutable evidence of the existence of a lake monster. Wilson claimed to have filmed Nessie on an early April morning while driving along the northern shore of Loch Ness. Nessie is perhaps the most famous mythical monster in the world.

However, later, when the photo caused a sensation around the world, Wilson took care not to associate his name with this image, and the photo became known as the "surgeon's shot". In 1994, one of the bystanders confessed on his deathbed that the portrait of Nessie was just a prank, and that the photo actually showed a piece of plastic attached to a toy submarine.

The art of photography is relatively new (compared, for example, with painting), however, it has managed to form its own canons, a hierarchy of artists and a cloud of meanings and trends. At the same time, one or another photograph, which is considered a reference in the professional community, may look unremarkable to an outsider. The editors of the site offer to look at the most expensive photos in the world and decide for themselves whether they are so good.
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A collection of iconic photographs from the past 100 years that showcase
the grief of loss and the triumph of the human spirit...

An Australian kisses his Canadian girlfriend. Canadians rioted after the Vancouver Canucks lost the Stanley Cup.

Three sisters, three "lengths" of time, three photos.

Two legendary captains Pele and Bobby Moore exchange jerseys as a sign of mutual respect. FIFA World Cup, 1970.

1945 Petty Officer Graham Jackson plays "Goin' Home" at President Roosevelt's funeral on April 12, 1945.

1952. 63-year-old Charlie Chaplin.

Eight-year-old Christian accepts the flag during a memorial service for his father. Who was killed in Iraq just a few weeks before he was due to return home.

A veteran near the T34-85 tank, on which he fought during the Great Patriotic War.

A Romanian child hands a balloon to a police officer during protests in Bucharest.

Police Captain Ray Lewis arrested for participating in the Wall Street protests in 2011.

A monk next to an elderly man who died suddenly while waiting for a train in Shanxi Taiyuan, China.

A dog named "Leao" sits for two days at the grave of his owner, who died in terrible landslides.
Rio de Janeiro, January 15, 2011

African American athletes Tommy Smith and John Carlos raise their black-gloved fists in solidarity. Olympic Games, 1968.

Jewish prisoners at the time of their release from the camp. 1945

The funeral of President John F. Kennedy, which took place on November 25, 1963, the birthday of John F. Kennedy Jr.
Footage of JFK Jr saluting his father's coffin was broadcast around the world.

Christians protect Muslims during prayer. Egypt, 2011.

A North Korean man (right) waves from a bus to a weeping South Korean man after a family reunion at Mount Kumgang October 31, 2010. They were separated by the 1950-53 war.

The dog met with his owner after the tsunami in Japan. 2011.

"Wait for me, daddy" is a photograph of a march by the British Columbia Regiment. Five-year-old Warren "Whitey" Bernard ran from his mother to his father, Private Jack Bernard, yelling "Wait for me, Dad." The photograph became widely known, was published in Life, hung in every school in British Columbia during the war, and was used in war bond issues.

Priest Luis Padillo and a soldier wounded by a sniper during an uprising in Venezuela.

A mother and son in Concord, Alabama, near their home, which was completely destroyed by a tornado. April, 2011

A guy looks at a family album he found in the rubble of his old house after the earthquake in Sichuan.

4-month-old girl after the Japanese tsunami.

French citizens at the entrance of the Nazis to Paris during World War II.

Soldier Horace Greasley confronts Heinrich Himmler while inspecting the camp in which he was imprisoned. Surprisingly, Greasley left the camp many times to meet the German girl he was in love with.

A fireman gives water to a koala during wildfires. Australia 2009.

The father of the deceased son, at the 9/11 memorial. During the tenth annual ceremonies, on the grounds of the World Trade Center.

Jacqueline Kennedy at the swearing-in of Lyndon Johnson as President of the United States. Immediately after the death of her husband.

Tanisha Blevin, 5, holds the hand of Hurricane Katrina survivor Nita Lagarde, 105.

A girl, who is in temporary isolation to detect and clean up radiation, looks at her dog through the glass. Japan, 2011

Journalists Yuna Lee and Laura Ling, who were arrested in North Korea and sentenced to 12 years hard labor, have been reunited with their families in California. After successful US diplomatic intervention.

Meeting mother with her daughter, after serving in Iraq.

Young pacifist Jane Rose Casmere, with a flower on the bayonets of the Pentagon guards.
During a protest against the Vietnam War. 1967

"The Man Who Stopped the Tanks"...
An iconic photo of an unknown rebel standing in front of a column of Chinese tanks. Tiananmen, 1989

Harold Whittles hears for the first time in his life - the doctor has just installed a hearing aid for him.

Helen Fisher kisses a hearse carrying the body of her 20-year-old cousin, Private Douglas Halliday.

US Army troops making landfall during D-Day. Normandy, 6 June 1944.

World War II prisoner released by the Soviet Union meets his daughter.
The girl sees her father for the first time.

A Sudan People's Liberation Army soldier during a rehearsal for the Independence Day parade.

Greg Cook hugging his lost dog after he was found. Alabama, after a tornado in March 2012.

Photo taken by astronaut William Anders during the Apollo 8 mission. 1968

Take a closer look at this photo. This is one of the most remarkable photographs ever taken. The baby's tiny hand reached out from the womb to squeeze the surgeon's finger. By the way, the child is 21 weeks from conception, the age when he can still be legally aborted. The tiny pen in the photo belongs to a baby who was due to be born on December 28 last year. The photo was taken during an operation in America.

The first reaction is to recoil in horror. It looks like a close-up of some terrible incident. And then you notice, in the very center of the photo, a tiny hand grasping the surgeon's finger.
The child is literally grasping for life. Therefore, this is one of the most remarkable photographs in medicine and a record of one of the most extraordinary operations in the world. It shows a 21-week-old fetus in the womb, before the very spinal surgery that was required to save the baby from severe brain damage. The operation was performed through a tiny incision in the mother's wall and this is the youngest patient. At this time, the mother may choose to have an abortion.

The most famous photograph that no one has ever seen,” is how Associated Press photographer Richard Drew calls his picture of one of the victims of the World Trade Center, who jumped out of the window to her death on September 11
“On the day that was captured on camera and film more than any other day in history,” Tom Junod later wrote in Esquire, “the only taboo by common consent was taking pictures of people jumping out of windows.” Five years later, Richard Drew's "falling man" remains a terrible artifact of that day that should have changed everything but didn't.

Photographer Nick Yut took a photo of a Vietnamese girl running away from the exploding napalm. It was this picture that made the whole world think about the war in Vietnam.
A photo of 9-year-old girl Kim Fook on June 8, 1972 went down in history forever. Kim first saw this picture 14 months later in a hospital in Saigon, where she was being treated for terrible burns. Kim still remembers running from her siblings on the day of the bombing and can't forget the sound of the bombs falling. A soldier tried to help and doused her with water, unaware that this would make the burns worse. Photographer Nick Yut helped the girl and took her to the hospital. At first, the photographer doubted whether to publish a photo of a naked girl, but then he decided that the world should see this picture.

The photo was later named the best photo of the 20th century. Nick Yut tried to keep Kim from becoming too popular, but in 1982, when the girl was studying at a medical university, the Vietnamese government found her, and since then Kim's image has been used for propaganda purposes. “I was under constant control. I wanted to die, this photo haunted me,” says Kim. She later managed to escape to Cuba to continue her education. There she met her future husband. Together they moved to Canada. Many years later, she finally realized that she couldn't run away from this photo and decided to use it and her fame to fight for peace.

Malcolm Brown, a 30-year-old photographer (Associated Press) from New York, received a phone call and was asked to be at a certain intersection in Saigon the next morning, as something very important is about to happen. He went there with a reporter from the New York Times. soon a car drove up, several Buddhist monks got out of it. Among them is Thich Quang Duc, who sat in a lotus position with a box of matches in his hands, while the rest began to pour gasoline on him. Thich Quang Duc struck a match and turned into a living torch. Unlike the weeping crowd watching him burn, he didn't utter a sound or move. Thich Quang Duc wrote a letter to the then head of the Vietnamese government asking him to stop the repression of Buddhists, stop the detention of monks and give them the right to profess and spread their religion, but did not receive a response

On December 3, 1984, the Indian city of Bhopal was hit by the largest man-made disaster in human history. A giant poisonous cloud, released into the atmosphere by an American pesticide factory, covered the city, killing 3,000 people that same night, and 15,000 more in the coming month. In total, more than 150,000 people were affected by the release of toxic waste, and this does not include children born after 1984.

Surgeon Jay Vacanti of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston is working with microengineer Jeffrey Borenstein to develop a technique for growing artificial livers. In 1997, he managed to grow a human ear on the back of a mouse using cartilage cells.

The development of a technique that allows culturing the liver is extremely relevant. In the UK alone, there are 100 people on the waiting list for transplants, and according to the British Liver Trust, most patients die before they get a transplant.

A picture taken by reporter Alberto Korda at a rally in 1960, in which Che Guevara is also visible between a palm tree and someone's nose, claims to be the most widely disseminated photograph in history

The most famous photograph of Steve McCurry, taken by him in a refugee camp on the Afghan-Pakistani border. Soviet helicopters destroyed the village of a young refugee, her whole family died, and before getting to the camp, the girl made a two-week journey in the mountains. After being published in June 1985, this photograph becomes a National Geographic icon. Since then, this image has been used everywhere - from tattoos to rugs, which turned the photo into one of the most replicated photos in the world.

At the end of April 2004, the CBS program 60 Minutes II aired a story about the torture and abuse of inmates at the Abu Ghraib prison by a group of American soldiers. The story showed photographs that were published in The New Yorker a few days later. This became the loudest scandal around the presence of Americans in Iraq.
In early May 2004, the leadership of the US Armed Forces admitted that some of the torture methods were not in accordance with the Geneva Convention and announced their readiness to publicly apologize.

According to the testimony of a number of prisoners, American soldiers raped them, rode them, forced them to fish food from prison toilets. In particular, the inmates said: “They made us walk on all fours like dogs and yelp. We had to bark like dogs, and if you didn't bark, then you were beaten in the face without any pity. After that, they left us in the cells, took away the mattresses, poured water on the floor and forced us to sleep in this slush without removing the hoods from our heads. And all this was constantly photographed”, “One American said that he would rape me. He drew a woman on my back and forced me to stand in a shameful position, to hold my own scrotum in my hands.

Poland - Teresa, a girl who grew up in a concentration camp, draws a "house" on the blackboard. 1948 David Seymou

The terrorist attack of September 11, 2001 (often referred to simply as 9/11) was a series of coordinated suicide terrorist attacks that took place in the United States of America. According to the official version, the Islamist terrorist organization Al-Qaeda is responsible for these attacks.
On the morning of that day, nineteen terrorists, allegedly related to Al-Qaeda, divided into four groups, hijacked four scheduled passenger airliners. Each group had at least one member who completed basic flight training. The invaders sent two of these aircraft into the towers of the World Trade Center, American Airlines Flight 11 into WTC 1, and United Airlines Flight 175 into WTC 2, causing both towers to collapse, causing severe damage to adjacent structures.

White and colored
Photo of Elliott Erwitt 1950

The photograph of an officer shooting a handcuffed prisoner in the head not only won a Pulitzer Prize in 1969, but also completely changed American attitudes towards what was happening in Vietnam. Despite the obviousness of the image, in fact, the photograph is not as unambiguous as it seemed to ordinary Americans, filled with sympathy for the executed. The fact is that the man in handcuffs is the captain of the Viet Cong "revenge warriors", and on this day he and his henchmen shot many unarmed civilians. General Nguyen Ngoc Loan, pictured left, has been haunted by his past all his life: he was refused treatment at an Australian military hospital, after moving to the US, he faced a massive campaign calling for his immediate deportation, the restaurant he opened in Virginia, every day was attacked by vandals. "We know who you are!" - this inscription haunted the general of the army all his life

Republican soldier Federico Borel Garcia is depicted in the face of death. The picture caused a huge uproar in society. The situation is absolutely unique. During the whole time of the attack, the photographer took only one picture, while he took it at random, without looking into the viewfinder, he did not look at all in the direction of the “model”. And this is one of the best, one of his most famous photographs. It was thanks to this picture that already in 1938 the newspapers called the 25-year-old Robert Cap "The Greatest War Photographer in the World"

The photo, which depicted the hoisting of the Banner of Victory over the Reichstag, spread around the world. Yevgeny Khaldei, 1945

By the early summer of 1994, Kevin Carter (1960-1994) was at the height of his fame. He had just received the Pulitzer Prize, job offers from famous magazines poured in one after another. “Everyone congratulates me,” he wrote to his parents, “I can’t wait to meet you and show you my trophy. This is the highest recognition of my work, which I did not dare to dream of.

Kevin Carter won the Pulitzer Prize for his photograph "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 ...

November 13, 1985. Eruption of the volcano Nevado del Ruiz - Colombia. Mountain snow melts, and a mass of mud, earth and water 50 meters thick literally wipes everything in its path from the face of the earth. The death toll exceeded 23,000 people. The disaster received a huge response around the world, thanks in part to a photo of a little girl named Omaira Sanchez. She was trapped, up to her neck in slush, her legs trapped in the concrete structure of the house. Rescuers tried to pump out the dirt and free the child, but in vain. The girl held on for three days, after which she became infected with several viruses at once. As journalist Christina Echandia, who was nearby all this time, recalls, Omaira sang and talked with others. She was frightened and constantly thirsty, but she was very courageous. On the third night, she began to hallucinate.

Alfred Eisenstaedt (1898-1995), a photographer working for Life magazine, strolled around the square photographing the kissers. He later recalled that he noticed a sailor who “rushed around the square and kissed indiscriminately all the women in a row: young and old, fat and thin. I watched, but the desire to photograph did not appear. Suddenly he grabbed something white. I barely had time to raise the camera and take a picture of him kissing the nurse.”
For millions of Americans, this photograph, which Eisenstadt called "Unconditional Surrender", became a symbol of the end of World War II...

The world is not divided into two parts, it is one. We all live on the same planet, but rarely know what is happening or happened at one time or another on the other side of the Earth, although, making this selection, I was convinced that everything - both good and bad - was in abundance. Of course, there are more negative events on our planet - murders, famine, wars ... the list is endless. And what is strange is that it is photographs with such terrible phenomena that are recognized as the best in the world. But photos with positive events, such as the birth of a child, love between a man and a woman, sunset and sunrise, are almost of no interest to anyone.

Such a combination of circumstances is easy to explain, because the main task of journalism is to pay attention to the problems, to the suffering and sorrowful moments of other people, so that those who live in their little worlds think at least a little... Naturally, it is unpleasant to look at photos full of pain, but not really it is interesting to flip through photos of the same type with kisses, which, in fact, do not carry any semantic load and do not give the realization that the world is not as good as it seems.

I propose to look at a photo selection of the most memorable photographs taken mainly in the 20th century. Some photos make me shudder and just want to cry... How cruel this world is... Thank God that I have never seen this whole nightmare in real life, otherwise I don't even know what would happen to me. Each of these photographs is a symbol. The symbol of the era, the symbol of the event, the symbol of all living things (this is up to you).

1. This photo is truly shocking. It shows the truth of the suffering of children in Sudan during the 1993 famine. The picture, which shows a tiny, exhausted girl crawling with all her remaining strength towards the humanitarian aid camp, was taken by photographer Kevin Carter. For this photograph, Carter received the prestigious Pulitzer Prize, but it cost him a lot. The photographer had to specially wait for the hungry vulture, which calmly walked in circles in anticipation of the death of the baby, just to make the shot as epic as possible. After 20 minutes, Carter still took a photo and drove the bird away from the child. After receiving an award for this picture and a wave of criticism against him, Kevin Carter committed suicide. It happened in 1994.

2. On August 6, 1945, an atomic mushroom photograph was taken over Hiroshima. The spectacle is truly frightening.

3. On November 25, 1963, John F. Kennedy's family said goodbye to him. The slain president was buried with full honors 3 days after the death from two bullets fired by Lee Harvey Oswald (who was not officially listed as the killer, but was the main suspect). By the way, two days later Oswald himself was also shot at the police station. It is not known what motives prompted the book depository worker to kill the president.

4. This picture, taken by photographer Robert Capa on September 5, 1936, has long been a real symbol of the bloody and ruthless Spanish Civil War. The photo shows an armed militiaman who had just received a lethal bullet. The picture, of course, is very emotional and tragic, BUT it turns out that this is just a successful staging. Experts came to this conclusion after carefully studying all the details (the place of the fighting and the location of the dead body of a man).

5. Photographer Dorothea Lange in 1936 took the picture that brought her worldwide fame. On it you can see Florence Owens Thompson, who has already been called the symbol of the Great Depression, with children. The name of the main character of the photo did not become known until 40 years later, and she was very upset that the photographer published this photo and did not send her a copy. So Dorothea Lange got everything and Florence nothing but the grave inscription “Florence Owens Thompson. The Wandering Mother is a legend of the strength of America's mothers"

6. The world-famous photograph of the Vietnam War, which depicts all the horror and suffering of innocent people, simply amazed the whole world. Young children fleeing from the napalm that the South Vietnamese military forces mercilessly pour on the village were captured by photographer Nick Ut. As soon as the picture was taken, he picked up the girl in the center (Kim Fook) and took her to the hospital. The photographer did not hope that the girl would survive, but the doctors were able to save her life, despite the fact that Kim had terrible third-degree burns all over her body. Now Kim is alive and well, she has devoted her whole life to helping people and medicine. She often talks about those terrible times and about the photo in an interview:
“Napalm is the worst 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?”

7. This picture was taken on February 1, 1968, when Viet Cong Nguyen Van Lem was executed by General Nguyen Ngoc Loan. Photographer Eddie Adams, who took this landmark photograph, immediately became famous and began to be criticized. So he had to apologize to the general for the fact that he caused irreparable damage to his honor. Here is what the photographer said after that: “The general killed the Viet Cong, I killed the general with my camera. Photos 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 that time and place on that hot day when you caught the so-called bad guy after he blew up one, two, or three Americans?"

8. September 11, 2001. World Trade Center tower in New York. Many photographs were taken that day, but this one, dubbed “the falling man,” has become the strongest image of human despair in the 21st century. This photo was taken by photographer Richard Drew before the Twin Towers fell, because the man in the photo preferred to die by hitting the ground, rather than suffocating from smoke in the walls of a skyscraper.

9. 1956 East Germany. A little girl meets her father - a German prisoner of the 2nd World War, who was released by the USSR to freedom.

10. On June 4, 1962, a very symbolic picture was taken at the Puerto Cabello naval base. A soldier mortally wounded by a sniper asks for forgiveness for his sins while holding on to priest Luis Padillo.

11. On June 11, 1963, in southern Vietnam, a Buddhist monk named Thich Quang Duc set himself on fire to protest religious persecution by the Vietnamese government.

12. September 1965 A mother and her children cross a deep river unassisted to escape aerial bombardment by American troops.

13. A few months later, on February 24, 1966, in South Vietnam, such a bestial attitude on the part of the US military towards the South Vietnamese rebel was recorded with the help of a camera.

14. 1974 Nigerian drought and a little girl who experienced the unbearability of life without water on herself.

15. On July 22, 1975, a massive fire broke out in a house in Boston. A woman and a girl who could not get out of the house at the very beginning were forced to jump from the windows.

16. SOUTH AFRICA. August 1977. The police decided to go ahead and spray tear gas during the riots in the illegal settlement of Modderdam. By the way, those people were just trying to protest against the destruction of their own homes.

17. In the region of Cambodia, Uganda, in April 1980 it was simply unbearable, there was not enough food or water. This proves this picture, which shows the hand of a small emaciated boy and a missionary who came to help all the suffering in Uganda.

18. The merciless massacre took place on September 18, 1982 in Beirut, Lebanon. In the photo you can see the dead Palestinians who were slaughtered by Christian Phalangists in Sabra and the Shatila refugee camp in Lebanon.

19. The devastating earthquake in Koinoren claimed the lives of many people. The photo, taken October 30, 1983, shows a mother of five, Kezban Ozer, who found her sons dead. Maternal grief is scary ... (

20. 12-year-old girl Omaira Sanchez fell into a dangerous trap in the ruins that caused the eruption of the Nevado del Ruz volcano in Colombia. The photo was taken on November 16, 1985, almost 60 hours after Omaira was trapped. The girl could not be pulled out, so after a while she lost consciousness and died.

21. December 18, 1987. Kuro, South Korea. A disconsolate mother begs the riot police to release her son, who was arrested at a demonstration. The woman's son accused the government of fraud, for which he was imprisoned. The police do not pay attention to the grief of the mother.

22. Terrible famine in November 1992 in Somalia. The mother lifts the body of her own child to take it to the prepared grave.
23. It really matters which side you're on. A photograph taken in June 1994 of a Hutu man confirms this. The police maimed the young man as soon as suspicions arose that he was sympathetic to the rebels of the Tutsi ethnic group.

24. 1996 Quito. The victims of the landmine in Cuito, Angola, could not be happy in those days, because in the course of the civil war, many of their relatives were killed, and they were traumatized for the rest of their lives.

1977 On the one hand, this is already a distant era for us, a completely different world, and on the other hand, many of the readers personally caught that time and remember it at least from early childhood.
The USSR will be the next series, but for now we'll see the rest of the world.
It seems that in 1977 no fateful historical events took place on the planet, but many bright and bizarre images are associated with it, a kaleidoscope of which we will try to attach here.

On December 4, 1977, the coronation of Emperor Bokassa I, the first representative of the newly formed Bokassa dynasty, took place in the Central African Empire. The best European firms made a crown adorned with two thousand diamonds. Its cost was $ 5 million, and the ceremony took a quarter of the country's annual export income. The addition was a golden throne in the shape of a seated eagle weighing 2 tons and leopard robes. More than 100 cars of the best foreign brands and 130 white horses were purchased. The shoes he wore during the ceremony are listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the most expensive in the world. The ceremonial in many details copied the coronation of Napoleon I, whom the new emperor considered his model. The leaders of all world and African powers, as well as Pope Paul VI, were invited to the coronation. Obviously, the role of Pope Pius VII was being prepared for him, from whose hands Napoleon snatched the crown and married it himself. But despite the rich gifts promised, neither the Pope nor the heads of state came to Bangui for the ceremony. Many considered Bokassa mentally deranged and compared with the eccentric dictator of Uganda, Idi Amin.

In addition to Bokassa, only two monarchs in the world at that time had the imperial title: Shahinshah of Iran Mohammed Reza Pahlavi and the Japanese monarch Hirohito.
Despite its frankly cannibalistic (in the literal sense) character, the regime enjoyed the support of the President of France in 1974-1981. Valerie Giscard d'Estaing, to whom Bokassa provided favorable conditions for the development of mineral deposits, in particular, uranium, which is necessary for the French atomic weapons program. However, at some point, Paris got tired of this "dear friend" and in September 1979 the last African empire was demolished by a detachment of French paratroopers (Operation Barracuda).

Imperial family of Bokassa:

In 1977, Queen Elizabeth celebrated 25 years of her reign with a tour of the UK. She traveled to 36 countries in 10 weeks.

Quite young!

China has been living for the first year without its "great helmsman". While his heirs share power, a huge mausoleum for Mao is being built in Beijing at an accelerated pace:

There are almost no signs of imminent changes in the country, but they are coming very soon. In 1977, Deng Xiaoping annulled the results of the "Cultural Revolution" and launched a campaign called "Beijing Spring". The Blue Ant Society was in its last months.

Like any other, 1977 was not without various cataclysms and disasters.

March 27, 1977 in Tenerife, as a result of a collision of two Boeing 747 aircraft, 583 people died. This disaster remains the largest in terms of the number of victims in the history of civil aviation.
Location of the crash:

On March 4, 1977, a rather strong earthquake happened in Romania.
Destruction in Bucharest:

On the night of July 13-14, 1977, as a result of a power failure, almost all of New York was left without electricity. This short "blackout" was accompanied by massive robberies, arson and other riots.
The economic crisis of the 1970s led to the impoverishment of the inhabitants of the "black" neighborhoods of New York. The blackout was perceived by them as an opportunity to expropriate the property of wealthy citizens. Unprecedented mass looting began in the central quarters of Manhattan. On Broadway, barred storefronts were simply ripped out by trucks. As one of the cops says, it was the night of the beasts".

Intersection of 110th Street with Third Avenue on July 14, 1977 during the pogrom. AP Photo Ira Schwarz

New York in the Dark, Joe Pickoff, July 1977:

Meanwhile, American feminists were marching for women's rights:

Other American women preferred to simply enjoy life and youth.
Ballet on a skateboard at the South Beach Pier in Miami, 1977:

In 1977, Thor Heyerdahl set off on his voyage on the Tigris:

1977 left many vivid memories in the field of cinema and show business. Those whom we are accustomed to consider "world stars" at that time were still quite young.

Arnold Schwarzenegger at the 38th Cannes Film Festival, 1977:

He was then still considered a bodybuilder, and not a film actor, although he had already managed to play a couple of roles. His real glory lay ahead.

In 1977, "Rocky" won the Oscar for Best Picture, although its main character was left without a statuette:

The deafening glory of Sylvester Stallone was also yet to come.

On the contrary, Alain Delon has already entered the zenith of his acting career. In 1977, he starred in Death of a Scoundrel:

In 1977, the Japanese released the thriller Legend of the Dinosaur, which a couple of years later was also shown in the USSR, where the film was a huge success (48.7 million viewers):

Young Nastassja Kinski in 1977:

Throughout the 1970s, the "sexual revolution" launched in the late 1960s continued in Western countries. It was an era of freedom of morals, which would then be replaced by the neo-conservative trends of the 1980s.

In 1977, the famous erotic film "Farewell Emmanuelle" was released.
Sylvia Kristel in the Seychelles:

The future singer Madonna received a dance education at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and posed naked:

Louise Ciccone full face:

At a time when some stars were just being born, others forever left the sky.

On August 16, 1977, the legendary Elvis Presley died in Memphis.
So he was in the last year of his life:

The era of personal computers began in the world.
The Apple II computer was first introduced in 1977 at the West Coast Computer Fair and became one of the earliest and most successful personal computers of its time. Several models of the Apple II were produced, and the most popular of them, with relatively few changes, was sold until the 1990s. In total, between 5 and 6 million copies of the Apple II were produced.

For the people of 1977, the future has already arrived:

Apple co-founder Steve Jobs poses in front of an Apple II computer in 1977:

In October 77, Atari, Inc. Atari_2600 game console was released:

The initial price of the console was $ 199, by the time of launch, 9 games were ready.

The automotive market was still dominated by the United States, which was on the heels of the Japanese.

Despite the consequences of the oil crisis of 1973-74, American concerns were still producing bulky cars out of inertia.
Chicago Auto Show 1977:

Too strong was the Americans' tradition of measuring cool big cars.

Chrysler New Yorker 1977:

The Japanese compact car Toyota Corolla, produced since 1966, already in 1974, he got into the Guinness Book of Records as the best-selling model in the world. According to the book, by December 2000, 25 million cars had been sold worldwide. However, in fact, several models of different generations were hidden under one name.
This is what the 1977 Corolla looked like:

In Europe, the Swedish car company Volvo celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1977. In honor of the anniversary, a special brochure was issued, on the pages of which "stages of a long journey" are marked:

In France, the 5 millionth copy of the iconic Renault 4 was produced on September 9, 1977:

In conclusion, as usual, a little walk around the cities.

This is what the capital of Qatar, Doha, looked like in 1977:

Then the oil boom was just beginning. Now Doha looks like this:

But the skyline of San Francisco has hardly changed in 40 years. Its downtown now looks almost the same as in 1977:

The main difference between Manhattan 77 and the modern one will be noticed by anyone:

Planes no longer land in Hong Kong the way they did in 1977:

Khrushchev area in pre-revolutionary Kabul:

We will get acquainted with the cities of 1977 in more detail in the review "Streets of 1977".

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