Most Famous/iconic photographs in history

[HangingBasketCase]

Does anyone else enjoy photogtaphy? I've been looking at some of the most iconic photographs of all time, and I have a few favourites. I'll share three of them with you now.

Firstly lunch a top a skyscraper. Taken in New York during the building of the Rockerfeller Centre. I can't get my head around how they were able to sit on a metal beam, so high up without anything to secure them! If you ever visit the Rockerfeller centre you can recreate this photo, it's become that famous!

Secondly St Paul's Cathedral taken early in the morning following a devastating air raid on the city of London. All of the buildings around the cathedral were destroyed, yet almost miraculously St Pauls survived. How inspirational this image must have been to people at the time, seeing the dome of the Cathedral rising from the smoke like a Phoenix from the flames.

Finally "The Kiss", taken on VJ Day 1945, in Time Square. I believe the identities of the couple are unknown, but they weren't actually a couple. They were random strangers, he just grabbed hold of her and kissed her in happiness because the war was over. Wonder what we'd make of that now?

Juxtaposition of two images, one from modern St. Petersburg and one from the same place in what was then Leningrad, during the Nazi siege.

This gives an incredible insight through some amazing photos.

I remember seeing this at school and it's stayed with me ever since.

math, your links won't work for me - 'hotlines not allowd'

I have very much NOT been linking to a picture from when allied forces freed Auschwitz - it's easily googlable if you want. Iconic for all the wrong reasons.

Sorry, 'hot links not allowed'

Oh muffin that photo of all the coffins is so sad

Heartbreaking 116 children and 28 adults died that day and many people who volunteered to help still live in the area

PacificDogwood Try C&P this url directly into your web browser
englishrussia.com/images/leningrad_siege/2.jpg

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.

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

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?

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

And on a lighter note

"I did not have sexual relations with that woman"

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.

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 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...

This image of Christine Keeler is pretty iconic.

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.

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