Can a Photograph Change the World?
May 13, 2023 8:51 PM Subscribe
PetaPixel makes a pretty strong case that yes, a photograph can change the world. In less time than it's going to take me to write this sentence I have thought of at least ten remarkaly powerful images. I think that the earth shot from space, that magical image of this magnificent, beautiful blue ball -- we're so lucky. Stop, for just a second, humor me here, look at our beautiful home -- we're so lucky. But I know there are ugly things also, that someone caught on film -- cough if up, move us, either to tears or to joy, or, best, tears *of* joy. Can a photograph change the world? (Show your work.)
This image didn't change the world but it changed mine -- the most intimate portrait I have ever seen -- Abraham Lincoln, the last photo of him. It is perfect, the depth of field exactly on his eyes. (Seeing it on a screen absolutely does not do it justice.)
I saw it at Museum Fine Art Houston, an entire show of early photographs, the French of course stole every image of a field or farm, pastoral like you cannot believe. Part of the show was about how photography changed painting. You no longer needed straight-up accuracy, as photos have that now. The change wasn't instant but it was rumbling in the distance.
posted by dancestoblue at 9:40 PM on May 13, 2023 [5 favorites]
I saw it at Museum Fine Art Houston, an entire show of early photographs, the French of course stole every image of a field or farm, pastoral like you cannot believe. Part of the show was about how photography changed painting. You no longer needed straight-up accuracy, as photos have that now. The change wasn't instant but it was rumbling in the distance.
posted by dancestoblue at 9:40 PM on May 13, 2023 [5 favorites]
Arguably, the existence of Green parties in democracies all over the world can be traced back to this photo of Rock Island Bend by Peter Dombrovskis.
The Tasmanian Greens were the first of them, and they emerged directly from the Save The Franklin River campaign that that photo was heavily used to promote.
posted by flabdablet at 10:35 PM on May 13, 2023 [8 favorites]
The Tasmanian Greens were the first of them, and they emerged directly from the Save The Franklin River campaign that that photo was heavily used to promote.
posted by flabdablet at 10:35 PM on May 13, 2023 [8 favorites]
Ansel Adams changed my personal world. His photographs enchanted me, made me want to take photographs as magnificent as his, and impelled (and still impels) me to visit wild western places. After 30 years of viewing his photos they continue to galvanize me today.
I don't know if this fits the premise of TFA, but I just couldn't leave it unsaid.
posted by Greg_Ace at 11:35 PM on May 13, 2023 [6 favorites]
I don't know if this fits the premise of TFA, but I just couldn't leave it unsaid.
posted by Greg_Ace at 11:35 PM on May 13, 2023 [6 favorites]
Nick Ut took a photo of a young girl badly burned by a napalm attack in the Vietnam war. The girl, naked and screaming, ran directly toward Nick Ut's camera. (After taking the photo, he took the girl to hospital and saved her life.)
The photo helped change the dialogue around the Vietnam war.
"She was and is an international symbol of that unpopular war, and of the torment inflicted on innocent people in all wars."
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 11:50 PM on May 13, 2023 [13 favorites]
The photo helped change the dialogue around the Vietnam war.
"She was and is an international symbol of that unpopular war, and of the torment inflicted on innocent people in all wars."
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 11:50 PM on May 13, 2023 [13 favorites]
There were a lot of powerful images from the civil rights movement... here's a selection from Life.
posted by zompist at 11:57 PM on May 13, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by zompist at 11:57 PM on May 13, 2023 [2 favorites]
If I remember correctly, photographs of Emmett Till's dead body that showed how brutally he had been tortured and murdered
were a major turning point for the civil rights movement in the US.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 12:41 AM on May 14, 2023 [7 favorites]
were a major turning point for the civil rights movement in the US.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 12:41 AM on May 14, 2023 [7 favorites]
Nick Ut took a photo of a young girl badly burned by a napalm attack in the Vietnam war ... The photo helped change the dialogue around the Vietnam war.
Did it though?
I was ten years old when that photo was published, and I don't ever remember the war being talked about positively by any adult in my parents' suburban Australian circle before that had happened.
Both Napalm Girl and Saigon Execution (from four years earlier) certainly saw widespread use as anti-war propaganda, but I'm not sure how many minds they actually changed, at least not in this country.
Then, as now, there were overwhelming tribal allegiances in Australian politics and the strongest predictor of anybody's opinion on the war was the party they'd most recently voted for: the winning centre-Right Liberal Party, determined as ever to stay firmly on the wrong side of history, or the centre-Left Labor Party whose anti-war stance could not have been clearer.
I don't believe that Gough Whitlam eventually got Labor elected in 1972 primarily because of the Vietnam War. 23 years of conservative Government had wrecked the joint as they always do given time, ordinary people had just got generally fed up with it, and Gough ran a brilliant campaign that had far more to do with raw emotion and personality politics than the ongoing moral vacuum underlying US foreign policy.
posted by flabdablet at 2:07 AM on May 14, 2023 [1 favorite]
Did it though?
I was ten years old when that photo was published, and I don't ever remember the war being talked about positively by any adult in my parents' suburban Australian circle before that had happened.
Both Napalm Girl and Saigon Execution (from four years earlier) certainly saw widespread use as anti-war propaganda, but I'm not sure how many minds they actually changed, at least not in this country.
Then, as now, there were overwhelming tribal allegiances in Australian politics and the strongest predictor of anybody's opinion on the war was the party they'd most recently voted for: the winning centre-Right Liberal Party, determined as ever to stay firmly on the wrong side of history, or the centre-Left Labor Party whose anti-war stance could not have been clearer.
I don't believe that Gough Whitlam eventually got Labor elected in 1972 primarily because of the Vietnam War. 23 years of conservative Government had wrecked the joint as they always do given time, ordinary people had just got generally fed up with it, and Gough ran a brilliant campaign that had far more to do with raw emotion and personality politics than the ongoing moral vacuum underlying US foreign policy.
posted by flabdablet at 2:07 AM on May 14, 2023 [1 favorite]
"chariot pulled by cassowaries" I totally agree and was going to post that photo.
I'd like to add Gene Smith's "Tomoko and Mother in the Bath." It may not have changed the entire world, but it sute did a lot for the victims of mercury poisoning in Minamata.
posted by cccorlew at 7:16 AM on May 14, 2023 [5 favorites]
I'd like to add Gene Smith's "Tomoko and Mother in the Bath." It may not have changed the entire world, but it sute did a lot for the victims of mercury poisoning in Minamata.
posted by cccorlew at 7:16 AM on May 14, 2023 [5 favorites]
This reminds me how awash we are in images, and how very little impact the majority of the images have. Yet the stellar and celebrated ones do seem to poke through the flood and hit us between the eyes, once in awhile. Thankfully.
I like that jumping man, vrakatar, ty.
My life has not been changed by photos, though, that I can think of, except for maybe something awful that some punk kid just had to show all of his classmates. That and the discovery of porn, tbh.
posted by BlunderingArtist at 7:32 AM on May 14, 2023 [2 favorites]
I like that jumping man, vrakatar, ty.
My life has not been changed by photos, though, that I can think of, except for maybe something awful that some punk kid just had to show all of his classmates. That and the discovery of porn, tbh.
posted by BlunderingArtist at 7:32 AM on May 14, 2023 [2 favorites]
I fear the days of photos having impact is passing. With deep fakes, Photoshop and AI generated images nothing is really believable any longer. Photos are no longer documents, just opinions.
Posted with a small tear in my eye as after a career in photojournalism and teaching photography.
posted by cccorlew at 8:56 AM on May 14, 2023 [12 favorites]
Posted with a small tear in my eye as after a career in photojournalism and teaching photography.
posted by cccorlew at 8:56 AM on May 14, 2023 [12 favorites]
"chariot pulled by cassowaries" I totally agree and was going to post that photo.
I was very sad to NOT find a photo of a chariot pulled by birds further up the thread. (Really good user name though)
posted by DigDoug at 10:04 AM on May 14, 2023 [4 favorites]
I was very sad to NOT find a photo of a chariot pulled by birds further up the thread. (Really good user name though)
posted by DigDoug at 10:04 AM on May 14, 2023 [4 favorites]
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posted by vrakatar at 9:33 PM on May 13, 2023 [4 favorites]