Images in the media that have stayed with you

[KenAdams]

For me it's:

• the Syrian boy on the beach
• Leah Betts
• Millie Dowler at the ironing board

James Bulger being led away followed by the photos of the 2 children who killed him.
Kate McCann walking on the beach carrying cuddle cat.
9/11 the collapse of the towers and knowing I knew people at the top.
Ian Huntley's interview on tv before it was found out that he killed Holly and Jessica.

Yy to all of these. Also the beagle who was ripped apart by 2/3 big dogs at a park. The Daily Mail showed the video of it. Now THAT was horrific!

Oh and Sophie Lancaster after she was stamped on just for being a Goth.

Derek Wood and David Howes were the soldiers murdered at the funeral in Andersonstown, Belfast in 1988. I will always remember the image of the priest, Alec Reid, bent over the body of David Howes giving him the last rites.

What counts as the media? I once watched a Russian Neo-nazi video where they slit a guy's throat and he sort of sounded like he was drowning in his own blood. I was a teenager and thought I was edgy and hard. I sent it to my friend who reacted with the correct response of deep shock and disgust, and I realised that I was an utter twat and that trying to desensitise myself to horrible things was not making me stronger, just more of a twat.

That stayed with me.

The photos of Baby P, the one before he was being abused the one the press used showing his lovely blonde hair and blue jumper then the photo taken just before he died, he had a shaved head and chocolate smeared around his face to hide the bruises. He's sat in a pushchair as by then he had a broken back and couldn't walk. I'll never ever forget those photos or that little boy 😢

Sort of related, I was about 19 when the Boxing Day tsunami happened. I remember saying at work “they are stupid to build their houses on the beach anyway” obviously didn’t watch the news.
Years later, watched The Impossible, what I said has haunted me since!

Interesting that its mainly negative, violent, death related images that stay with us. But i agree with most of these images in that they haunt.

Interesting that its mainly negative, violent, death related images that stay with us.

I agree. I tried to think of something good but I couldn't get beyond Royal Wedding balcony kisses.

I was just about to say that Tea16

This is the one that stayed with me. I had a postcard of it on my bedroom wall at Manchester uni in the 80s and seeing it again today took me right back there

Gosh I'd never seen the vulture or the Saigon ones. I feel sick.

The Leah Betts one stayed with me. In fact I was talking to my kids about it the other day and I showed them the photo. It haunts me but also stopped me taking hard drugs so it served its purpose.

Recently read an article (with pictures) about a man where I live throwing his Lurcher into the sea over and over from a pier.
I actually cried myself to sleep.
The world is full of sick bastards .

I hadn't seen a lot of these before. Some of those pictures will definitely haunt me, the ones with children especially. The Baylee Almon and Dunblane stories are particularly upsetting. I was in the same school year as the Dunblane kids.

The world is full of sick bastards

Indeed

Positive:

First man in space
England winning the World Cup in 1966 when they beat Germany (I watched it whilst I was in Germany, in a room with about 15 Germans
The pulling down of the Berlin Wall
Concorde's first flight

Negative:

Aberfan
Chernobyl
Lockerbie
Tiannaman Square massacre
Twin Towers

Aberfan. I was six. The pictures of the unimaginable anguish, despair and tears. I can feel it now, the utter gloom of all the adults around, teachers. Grown ups cry. A safe and predictable world, gone in an instant. Bloody heartbreaking.

And the good one, Xmas Eve 1968 sat on my Nan's pouffe glued to the box watching Apollo 8. Apparently the most watched Tele prog at the time.

Agree about the one with the African child and the vulture it's so upsetting . I saw it in a pullout from the guardian a few years ago that had lots of powerful pictures but that was definitely the most harrowing
The little Jewish boy holding his hands up in the Warsaw ghetto was in the same pull out another very distressing image
Jackie Kennedy standing next to Lyndon Johnson being sworn in as president wearing a blood stained suit and looking utterly traumatised

The photograph used by the press when Paula Clennel was murdered in Ipswich by Steve Wright. I used to look after her when she was a teenager living in a care home, the first photo they used was when she was around that age, I was in the supermarket and her face was on the front page. My blood ran cold - heartbreaking

Tony2 I was 21 and will never forget it.

The My Lai villagers

I had a postcard of it on my bedroom wall at Manchester uni in the 80s

To throw darts at I hope BitOutOfPractice?

Victoria Climbie
Daniel Pelka
Peter Connolly
Ellie Butler

I have lost a lot of babies in early pregnancy and it's hard for me to grieve for them as they had no identity yet, so I grieve for these children instead, keep them close to my heart and send them love. That may sound bonkers: recurrent loss does weird things to you.

The Challenger shuttle exploding in the 80s, I was a small child & it was live.
I remember bursting into tears, it was horrible.