Most Famous/iconic photographs in history

Here's an iconic snap from the Civil Rights movement, taken by Magnum Photographer Bruce Davidson in a NYC diner in 1962.

This is another one I never forget, Ned Parfitt selling papers outside the White Star Line offices, he died only 6 years later, days before Armistice. This one's particularly significant right now given the centenary of WW1.

veganCow I remember reading an article about that and being in floods of tears, how could they be so evil?

katiegee that photo of the murdered soldier haunts me. I was living in Nottingham at the time and driving home from work when I heard about the killings on the news. It's one of those photos that stay with you forever.

The one that haunts me is the still taken from CCTV of James Bulgers killers leading him away in the shopping precinct....he is innocently looking up at them and walking away from his mum, it brings me to tears even now. So utterly horrific.

I love this picture of Richard Nixon, to me just sums up politicians all over the world

I found this story sad and shocking and its awful to see how such a beautiful and majestic creature was reduced to that.

In 1916 Mary the elephant killed her handler, no one really knows how or why she killed him. He apparently jabbed her with a hook and after her death she was found to have had 2 abcessed teeth causing her great pain.

The city officials wanted her dead - they shot her several times to no avail, then tried to electrocute her. Finally agreeing to hang her the next day.

They started to hang her, forgetting that her leg was still chained to the rail, breaking bones and ligaments in her foot. Then the chain snapped, dropping her from a height and breaking her hip. On the last attempt with a stronger chain they succeeded in killing her.

I too hate that 'kiss' photo as it looks so intimidating and aggressive.

This one is so much nicer, even though it turned out to be staged - I used to have a huge poster of it on my wall in my 20's :)

When I think of famous pictures I think of this one, as well as the little girl running down the street in Vietnaim. There are others but these two come to my mind first

On the subject of the kennedys
this picture of Jackie Kennedy's father holding hands with his mistress whilst someone takes a photo. The photo was being taken from the other angle so the 'official' photographer wouldn't have seen the hand hold but someone else snapped their secret from the side.

It has always just struck me a a blatant public disrespect for his wife and wondered why his daughters allowed themselves to be treated exactly the same way.

This image of Christine Keeler is pretty iconic.

I love this image and all it stood for. Trying to copy an excerpt from an article I read about it but it won't paste...

I have seen many but not all of the pictures here and all of them are powerful and memorable in their own way.

The 'vulture' pic I find most upsetting.
It is right that the photographer recorded what was happening for that poor child.
But he should then have dumped the camera down and RACED to that child to hold and comfort him/her so she/he didn't die alone.

Similarly the pic of the girl running from the napalm.
ALL those soldiers taking pics and not one of them approaching her to offer comfort or clothing (appreciate clothing might not be right for burns but they all just WATCHED). Ugh.

I can't find the photo but I have never forgotten the one of Jill Morrell on the front page of every newspaper on the day John McCarthy's release from captivity was announced. There were loads of photos of her at the time but this one was astonishing. I have never seen such a one-click definition of happiness. She was holding a vigil candle and her eyes were brighter than the flame.

And on a lighter note

"I did not have sexual relations with that woman"

250,000 civil rights activists listen to Martin Luther King's I have a dream speech at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC, 1963

Young Princess Elizabeth was in Kenya. She was welcomed with this banner the day before her father died and she became the Queen.

So many iconic pictures of Princess Diana to choose from, but I find this early image of her quite intriguing. She must have had no idea of the drama that lay ahead.

Saga Jackie didn't take her dress off until she got back to the White House at about 3am the morning after the assassination. She wanted people to see the horror of what had happened.

I posted a picture of little JFK Jnr saluting his father's coffin. Did you know that JFK's funeral was also John Jr's 3rd birthday? They had the funeral reception and then a little birthday party for him. A book I read said later Jackie opened a door to find Prince Philip sitting on the floor with John Jr, playing. He said he reminded him of Prince Charles at the same age.

• I have got round having to see horrible pictures by doing Control end to the end of the thread then tentatively scrolling up.

There's one that left a deep impression on me, it was awful.

It's a photo take of a hotel owner throwing acid into a swimming pool, all because those people swimming were black. It was horrific and it was only in the 60's! Deeply shocking.

I work in safety training and I've seen some terrible photos of the King's Cross fire in 87. Like the football disasters mentioned above it was recent enough for me not to post photos on the thread, but they're there if you Google.

I remember seeing Hillsborough photos when we studied it at school and I can picture them in my head even now.

And still on football, the Munich air crash strikes a chord.

out of all those photo's it's the Kennedy shooting one that gives me ASMR.

The beautiful suicide is quite amazing, she looks as if she's asleep after that massive fall

I won't put up a picture as quite recent and much closer to home. The images of the football tragedies of the 1980s - Heysel, Hillsborough and Bradford are poignant. Nearly 200 lives were lost between those events. The face of football as a spectator sport changed drastically in the early 90s following the Taylor Report .

Ironically the massive growth in sponsorship and commercialisation which funded safety improvements, made football prohibitively expensive for many ordinary people.

I won't post pics but photos of American lynchings in the early twentieth century always take my breath away. How could that have been such a recent part of history?

Ah, of course, thanks, Sorrell, that worked.
V moving.

The shadow left from Hiroshima.

There is also a picture of Emmett Till's beaten and bloodied face, so I've decided not to post a picture as that is very distressing. The first time I saw it I had one of those sinking heart feelings. Just awful.