20 Saddest ever existing pictures
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and these are some
of the most powerful photos that will bring tears to your eye.
1. Bhopal Gas Tragedy (1984)
Pablo Bartholomew is an acclaimed Indian photojournalist who captured
the Bhopal Gas Tragedy into his lens. Almost 30 years have passed since
India’s worst industrial catastrophe injured 558,125 people and killed
as many as 15,000. Because safety standards and maintenance procedures
had been ignored at the Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) pesticide plant
in Bhopal, a leak of methyl isocyanate gas and other chemicals triggered
a massive environmental and human disaster. Photographer Pablo Bartholomew
rushed to document the catastrophe. He came across a man who
was burying a child.
2. Operation Lion Heart (2005)
Operation Lion Heart is the story of a 9-year-old Iraqi boy who was severely
injured by an explosion during one of the most violent conflicts of modern
history – the Iraq War. The boy was brought to a hospital in Oakland,
CA where he had to undergo dozens of life-and-death surgeries.
His courage and unwillingness to die gave him the nickname: Saleh Khalaf, “Lion Heart”.
3. The Syria Gas (2013)
This citizen journalism image provided by the Local Committee of Arbeen
which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting,
shows Syrian citizens trying to identify dead bodies, after an alleged poisonous
gas attack fired by regime forces, according to activists in Arbeen town,
Damascus, Syria, on August 21, 2013. Syrian anti-government activists accused
the regime of carrying out a toxic gas attack that killed at least 100 people,
including many children as they slept, during intense artillery and rocket barrages
on the eastern suburbs of Damascus, part of a fierce government offensive in the area.
4. After the Tsunami (2004)
One of the most representative and striking photos of the aftermath of the
Indian Ocean tsunami was taken by Reuters photographer Arko Datta in
Tamil Nadu. He won the World Press Photo competition of 2004. Kathy Ryan,
jury member and picture editor of The New York Times Magazine,
characterized Datta’s image as a “graphic, historical and starkly emotional picture.
” After the Tsunami” illustrates an Indian woman lying on the sand with her
arms outstretched, mourning a dead family member. Her relative was killed by
one of the deadliest natural disasters that we have ever seen: the Indian Ocean tsunami.
5. After the Storm (2008)
Miami Herald photographer Patrick Farrell captured the harrowing images of the
victims of Haiti in 2008. Farrell documented the Haitian tragedy with impressive
black-and-white stills. The subject of “After the Storm” is a boy who is trying
to save a stroller after the tropical storm Hanna struck Haiti.
6. Thailand Massacre (1976)
Neal Ulevich won the 1977 Pulitzer Prize for a series of photographs of disorder
and brutality in the streets of Bangkok, Thailand. The Thammasat University Massacre
took place on October 6, 1976. It was a very violent attack on students who were
demonstrating against Field Marshall Thanom Kittikachorn.
Field Marshal T. Kittikachorn was a dictator who was planning to come back
to Thailand. The return of the military dictator from exile provoked very
violent protests. Protestors and students were beaten, mutilated,
shot, hung and burnt to death.
7. War Underfoot (2004)
Los Angeles Times photographer Carolyn Cole took this terrifying photo
during her assignment in Liberia. It shows the devastating effects of the
Liberian Civil War. Bullet casings cover entirely a street in Monrovia.
The Liberian capital was the worst affected region, because it was
the scene of heavy fighting between government soldiers and rebel forces.
Carolyn won pulitzer prize in 2004 with the set of pictures containing this one.
8. Kosovo Refugees (2000)
Carol Guzy, the first woman to receive a Pulitzer Prize for spot news
photography, received her most recent Pulitzer in 2000 for her touching
photographs of Kosovo refugees. The above picture portrays Agim Shala,
a two-year-old boy, who is passed through a fence made with barbed
wire to his family. Thousands of Kosovo refugees were reunited
and camped in Kukes, Albania.
9. The Afghan Girl (1985)
Sharbat Gula is an Afghan woman who was the subject of a famous
photograph by journalist Steve McCurry. Gula was living as a refugee
in Pakistan during the time of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan
when she was photographed. The image brought her recognition when it
was featured on the cover of the June 1985 issue of National
Geographic Magazine at a time when she was approximately 12 years old.
The identity of the Afghan Girl remained unknown for over 17 years.
McCurry made several attempts during the 1990s to locate her,
but was only in January 2002, that he finally found her.
10. Migrant Mother (1936)
Photograph taken by Richard Drew, Associated Press photographer,
showing a man falling from the North Tower of the World Trade Center in
New York during the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
Five years after the attacks, the man was identified as Jonathan Briley,
a 43-year-old employee of a restaurant installed in in the North Tower of the
World Trade Center. However, officially, his identity has never been confirmed.
11. Uganda (1980)
Photography done by Mike Wells, in April 1980, shows a child in the province
of Karamoja, Uganda, holding hands with a missionary. The contrast between
the two hands serves as a reminder of the chasm that separates developed
and underdeveloped countries. The photograph remained unpublished for years.
12. The Power of One (2006)
In 2006, Israeli authorities ordered the evacuation of illegal outposts,
such as Amona. Oded Balilty, an Israeli photographer for the Associated Press,
was present when the evacuation degenerated into violent and unprecedented
clashes between settlers and police officers. The picture shows a brave woman
rebelling against authorities. Ynet Nili is the 16-year-old Jewish settler from
the above picture. According to Ynet, “a picture like this one is a mark of
disgrace for the state of Israel and is nothing to be proud of. The picture
looks like it represents a work of art, but that isn’t what went on there.
What happened in Amona was totally different.” Nili claims the police beat
her up very harshly. “You see me in the photograph, one against many,
but that is only an illusion – behind the many stands one man
(Prime Minister Ehud) Olmert, but behind me stand the Lord and the people of Israel.”
13. Racism in the United States (1950)
The photograph, which caused outrage around the world, shows separate
drinking fountains for whites and blacks in North Carolina, United States.
Until the 1950s, the african-Americans were not entitled to vote,
were segregated socially and comprised the poorest segment of the U.S. population.
14. Hiroshima (1945)
The photograph shows the first atomic bombing in history. On August 6, 1945,
the city of Hiroshima was devastated by atomic fission bomb called Little Boy,
launched by the United States, resulting in 258,000 deaths and injuries.
15. The Famine in Sudan (1993)
Photo published in March 1993 in the “New York Times” and responsible
for the rise of Kevin Carter as a photographer. In 1994, Kevin won the
Pulitzer Prize for Photography. Although the picture is impressive,
the vulture was not as close of the boy as the picture suggests
a fact that continues to cause controversy among journalists and photographers.
The boy in the photo was called Nyong Kong and survived the vulture,
died in 2007. Kevin Carter, the photographer, was killed in 1994.
16. Execution of a Viet Cong Guerrilla (1968)
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the picture shows Nguyen Ngoc Loan, chief of
the South Vietnamese police, firing his pistol into the head of Nguyen Van Lem,
official Vietcong in Saigon. Although shocking, the picture does not tell
the whole story. The murdered man had killed a family.
17. Phan Thi Kim Phúc (1972)
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1973 and the most famous war photograph of all time.
Kim Phuc (the girl naked, also known as the girl in the picture) runs along a
road near Trang Bang, South Vietnam, after an aerial napalm attack.
To survive, Kim ripped her clothes in flames of her body.
18. The Nigerian-Biafran War (1969)
Biafra, officially the Republic of Biafra, was a secessionist state in
south-eastern Nigeria that existed from 30 May 1967 to 15 January 1970,
taking its name from the Bight of Biafra (the Atlantic bay to its south).
The Nigerian Civil War or the Nigerian-Biafran War killed more than
a million people between 1967 and 1970, mainly from starvation.
Thousands of children were affected of Kwashiorkor, pathology resulting
from insufficient protein intake. The war photographer Don McCullin was
the first to draw attention to the tragedy.
19. Omayra Sanchez (1985)
The photograph shows Omayra Sanchez, a 13-year-old girl who was trapped
in construction waste after a landslide caused by the eruption of the
volcano Nevado del Ruiz, which devastated the village of Armero,
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Colombia, in 1985. Rescuers were unable to rescue her. She died about
60 hours after being trapped. The photo won the World Press Photo 1985.
20. 24-year-old nursing mother (1968)
A 24-year old mother nearing death but still taking care of her child, Biafra, 1968.
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