The images and stories behind these powerful pictures range from the depths of suffering to the pinnacle of our achievements. Some of these images are definitely NSFW/NSFL. I was actually a bit numb after putting this post together but felt it is important to see and share the greatness and horribleness of ourselves and our universe. If you have any other ideas for powerful images or stories please feel free to post a comment.Click to make images larger.
1. Buddhist monk named Thich Quang Duc who burned himself to death to protest Diem during the Vietnam War. Link
2. Man staring straight at Heinrich Himmler, Hitler’s right hand who was responsible for organizing the Holocaust.
3.The picture is of the charred remains of an Iraqi Soldier with his last expression of pain imprinted on his face, his arms slumped over the window of the truck, attempting to lift himself out. Link
4. One of the 25,000 victims of the Nevado del Ruiz (Colombia) volcano which erupted on November 14, 1985.
The 13-year old had been trapped in water and concrete for 3 days, and this photo was taken shortly before she died. Her eyes probably are so dark because of internal bleeding..
Also here is a news video of an interview..
5. Sunset on Mars. Link
6. There were significant health concerns for a huge percentage of the Haiti population, in the midst of devastating infrastructure damage and chaos. This man is trying to dispose of the massive amount of dead bodies.
7. A father stares at the hands of his five year-old daughter, which were severed as a punishment for having harvested too little caoutchouc/rubber. Link
8. Priest trying to save wounded soldier
9. Lyndon Johnson Inauguration
10. Tank Man Link
11. Holocaust child asked to draw “home”
12. Space Walk
13. Old Egyptian Sphinx
14. Earth from 6 billion kilometers (3.7 billion miles) away. Link
Carl Sagan Quote about this picture:
—
But for us, it’s different. Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader,” every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
The earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and in triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of the dot on scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner of the dot. How frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity – in all this vastness – there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. It is up to us. It’s been said that astronomy is a humbling, and I might add, a character-building experience. To my mind, there is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly and compassionately with one another and to preserve and cherish that pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.
—
15. Man Falling from the World Trade Center on 9/11 Link
16. Man Walks on Moon
17. The vulture is waiting for the girl to die to eat her. The photograph was taken by South African photojournalist, Kevin Carter, while on assignment to Sudan. He took his own life a couple of month later due to depression. Link
18. Little girl screaming after an Afghan suicide attack. Link
19. Child of a KKK member is innocently curious about a black police officer.
20. Holocaust Victims realize they are free
This picture was taken by Major Clarence L. Benjamin. He recounted:
“At the instant a few of the train people saw our tanks and first realized they had been liberated. Many of those close to the train are not yet aware of their liberation.â€
Bonus 1/4: Afghan Girls Eyes Speck Volumes
Bonus 2/4: A Vietnam vet remembers his friends at the memorial. and they remember him.
Bonus 3/4: John Lennon signs and autograph for his future murderer.
Bonus 4/4: Zoomable image of a billion suns http://djer.roe.ac.uk/vsa/vvv/iipmooviewer-2.0-beta/vvvgps5.html