A picture is worth a thousand words, but not all pictures are created equal. The pictures we usually feature here can be cute, beautiful, funny, or enchanting, but these pictures are powerful. They are gripping and unforgettable because of the volumes they speak about the human condition – about some of the best and worst moments of contemporary human existence.
EDIT: This post was a collection of 26 photographs and later 12 new pictures were added, because they surely deserve to be here.
Embracing couple in the rubble of a collapsed factory
A Russian soldier playing an abandoned piano in Chechnya in 1994
Man Falling from the World Trade Center on 9/11. “The Falling Man.”
When a survivor of an earthquake found a treasured photo album intact in Sichuan, China
When Marine Sergeant Frank Praytor fed a 2 week-old kitten after her mother was killed
When a soldier met his baby girl for the first time
Taken by Raghu Rai, a Indian Photojournalist, who was asked to join by Henri-cartier-Bresson. This Picture was made on the Chemical Disaster in Bhopal during 1984. He even did exhibit the pictures to support the survivors of the disaster.
When Meghan Vogel carried Arden McMath, a competitor, across the finish line when she collapsed during a race
Taken by Nick Ut, who won pulitzer prize for this picture. This Picture was taken during the south Vietnamese attack during 1972. The Girl running towards the camera is safe and still alive.
Migrant Mother by Dorothea Lange
Child Crawling by Kevin Carter
Again an one during the Vietnam war, shows the atrocity of war and its brutal behavior which is carried over by Humanity.
Taken by Mike wells, shows us the hand of an Ugandan Boy holded by a missionary. This image strikes us a reminder about the disparity in this world.
Taken by Elliot Erwitt. Symbolises the apartheid in africa, the discrimination they faced against the oddness.
Taken by James Natcheway. This Picture tells the genocide which took place in rwanda. This Hutu man was in one of those concentration camps who was brutally tortured. He then managed to survive once freed.
Taken by Freddy Alborta. The Man of revolutionaires “Che” Guevera. This picture has a striking similarity to the one of Jesus from the cross. This Picture also made the people to adopt the slogan “Che Lives”
Taken by Don McCullin. It was in Biafra, almost more than 3 years of war have ruined the lives of more than a million people . He was petrified in seeing the scene of more than 900 children living in a camp almost close to a point of death.
This Picture shows the reunion of Mother and child. The times of war and how cruel a departure can be to a family.
Helen Fisher kisses the hearse carrying the body of her 20-year-old cousin.
A man looking back on the times he spent with his wife on this bench.
This Picture shows the violation of almost everything. These cruel acts carried out by the US Army along with the additional governmental agencies came into light after this Picture was published.
This Picture of a Monk Thich Quang Duc, who allegedly burnt himself down. It was due to the rising rivalry between catholics and buddhists in the vietnam. The Monk didnt even move, he remained absolutely still even while burning.
Taken by Lawrence Beitler during 1930. This hanging of two black men was due to a lie that they raped a white girl. This Photograph was used to show the Diplomacy of Whites during that age.
Taken by Stuart Franklin of Magnum Photos. This Picture shows a Man who was seen dancing infront of the tankers. At first the photographer himself didnt believe it to be so iconic, then later it became one of it.
Taken by Lewis W. Hine an American Photographer. It shows the condition of child labor and the hardlives of people in coal mine Located in the south Pittson Pennsylvania.
The very first wedding photo of this couple were able to take after getting married 88 years prior.
When 8 year-old Christian Golczynski accepts the flag for his father, Marine Staff Sgt. Marc Golczynski, who died in Iraq
An unborn baby who reached out his hand right out of the incision and takes hold of the surgeons hand.
A monk prays for an elderly man who had died suddenly while waiting for a train in Shanxi Taiyuan, China
During massive floods in Cuttack City, India, in 2011, a heroic villager saved numerous stray cats by carrying them with a basket balanced on his head
The Graves of a Catholic woman and her Protestant husband, Holland, 1888
A dog named “Leao” sits for a second consecutive day at the grave of her owner, who died in the disastrous landslides near Rio de Janiero in 2011.
Zanjeer the dog saved thousands of lives during Mumbai serial blasts in March 1993 by detecting more than 3,329 kgs of the explosive RDX, 600 detonators, 249 hand grenades and 6406 rounds of live ammunition. He was buried with full honors in 2000
Indian homeless men wait to receive free food distributed outside a mosque ahead of Eid al-Fitr in New Delhi, India
A firefighter gives water to a koala during the devastating Black Saturday bushfires in Victoria, Australia, in 2009
Father and son (1949 vs 2009)
Heart surgeon after 23-hour-long (successful) heart transplant. His assistant is sleeping in the corner.
Inside an Auschwitz gas chamber
