Iconic images of the 20th Century

[WhiteCrowNZ]

This is a thread we've run on another site, which has been interesting, and I thought I could try and see if it runs over here.

The 20th Century is so ten years ago now.

But it was a unique century as throughout its hundred years, it was chronicled and recorded as no other thanks to this ...



The film camera, is already a relic of history in the 21st Century. They say a picture says a thousand words, and so some are iconic showing mankind at it's best and some sadly at it's worst.

I thought it would be interesting to start a thread dedicated in a way to photography has captured those iconic moments of history.

[WhiteCrowNZ]

Man on the Moon

If there is a unique shot which sums up the best mankind achieved in the 20th Century, this is it ...



For thousands of years man looked up at the Moon and was enchanted. The 20th Century was when we went there.

It was a monumental undertaking achieved by the dream of a slain President, the genius of Scientists and Engineers, the guts of men with "the Right Stuff" and the pockets of the American people.

But alas the reality is having been there, we're not likely to return in the near future, the lunar dream in times of economic strife being one we feel we can ill afford.

[Dino]

Darkest day. Atomic energy developed and like a spoilt teen with a brand new sports car, this was the equal to wrapping it around a lamp post rather than using it to get to point A to B safely.

[Matthew T]

[MacNimon]

The Holocaust

[SiHart]

Concorde:



Si xx

[Lissa]

1966 and all that...

[Si Hunt]

The Hindley pic is a bit tasteless...

[WhiteCrowNZ]

The Hindley pic is a bit tasteless...

But it is iconic. As much as the one of the concentration camps.

The history of the 20th Century is a history in pictures. And they show us at our best ... and also at our worst.

Alas it was the repeated use of that picture of Hindley in tabloids which has made it iconic.

[WhiteCrowNZ]

We Shall Overcome

Martin Luther King


Nelson Mandela


Mahatma Gandhi


The Dalai Lama

[Dino]

Is this cheating? It is the 20th Century...

[Matthew T]

But it is iconic. As much as the one of the concentration camps.

The history of the 20th Century is a history in pictures. And they show us at our best ... and also at our worst.

Alas it was the repeated use of that picture of Hindley in tabloids which has made it iconic.

Those were my thoughts. It was actually the image that immediately came to mind when I saw the thread title!

[WhiteCrowNZ]

Genius

Actually there were many geniuses of the 20th Century, as science and technology bounded like never before

Albert Einstein

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein

He caused the world of physics to be rethought as no-one else since Isaac Newton. And all whilst working as a patent clerk.



Stephen Hawking

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Hawking

Not only a research scientist in his own right, he's managed to help make some scientific theories accessible to the general public. All fighting a disability which would have crushed the spirit of many ...



The Chief Desginer

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergey_Korolyov

AKA Sergey Korolyov. I could have so easily chosen Werner von Braun instead. But his Russian counterpart was the first to launch a satellite into space with his Sputnik 1, and launch the space age, whilst American ambitions wavered.

But unlike von Braun who's wartime rockets were assembled using the slave labour of the concentration camp system, Korolyov was the victim of a similarly brutal slave labour system in Siberia. A political prisoner like so many others, his health never truely recovered. Even after release and his first successes in rocketry, he was reduced to the enigmatic name The Chief Designer.

In an age where it's easy to see people with little talent achieve fame for no good reason (insert MTV reality TV here). It's poignant to remember the political prisoner, the slave who managed to reach for the stars, but was denied the general recognition his genius deserved by the government he worked for.

[Rob McCow]

Here's an image that has been broadcast in more than 60 countries and seen by over 500 million people.



Carl Sagan's Face of Wonder. Superb!

[MinaHarker]

[MinaHarker]

[Rob McCow]

I've seen that one with the Americans planting that flag millions of times and spoofed in a million ways - but what is it all about? I've never known what it was.

[WhiteCrowNZ]

Victory!

There are two iconic pictures from the Second World War which both involve flags.

First and probably best is indeed the one is Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raising_th ... n_Iwo_Jima

On February 23, 1945 five U.S Marines and a U.S Navy Corpsman raise the flag atop Mount Suribachi, Iwo Jima. It was the first U.S flag to be planted on Japanese soil and marked the fall of southern half of the island as fierce fighting continued for the northern half.
21,570 Japanese died during the battle, either from fighting or ritual suicide. Allied forces suffered 26,038 casualties. The last Japanese surrenders occurred in 1951 after spending 6 years hiding in tunnel networks

The war on Iwo Jima got about as bad as any war gets, the Japanese were dug in tight, and it was a hard won victory by the Americans. Of the flag raisers, 3 never made it off the island alive.

But I think you can't mention this picture without also mentioning Flag on the Reichstag


Again in the war with the Nazis, the Russians had suffered the most brutal of losses.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship ... _Reichstag

Although this picture was edited for political purposes. The man holding the flag originally had 2 watches on - a sign to Stalin he had looted, for which the man would have been shot. And to also look more dramatic (smoke has been added). Yeah 1940s photoshop. It is a stunning image though, if not quite in the same league as Iwo Jima.

[WhiteCrowNZ]

Defiance

The 20th Century has had it's share of injustices, and rightly some of the most iconic images were those of defiance ...

Winston Churchills Message To Hitler



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_sign#Win ... ctory_sign

1968 Olympics Black Power salute



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968_Olymp ... wer_salute

Tiananmen Square's Tank Man



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tank_Man

[Andrew Curnow]

I've never seen that Flag on the Reichstag picture before, very interesting!

[Jeff]

[MacNimon]

28th January,1986...one of those moments where you never forget what you were doing when you heard the news...



Another disaster next, this was slightly(!) before my time but it's certainly an iconic photo