"You must be the change you wish to see in the world" - Mahatma Gandhi
José Guilherme Behrensdorf Derraik
 


Remarkable Images

 
   
Disclaimer: the photographs displayed in this page appear to be in public domain. I would like thank the authors of these beautiful portraits and sincerely apologize if any copyright has been infringed. If the latter is the case, please let me know and the photograph(s) will be promptly removed.
  
       
       
   

Since I was a child, I have always been drawn by the power of photographs. Images, snapshots of moments frozen in time, are unparalleled in their ability to convey beauty, emotion, pain, struggle, suffering and pretty much all aspects of life on our little blue planet.

I have selected some of these images that helped shape my views in the past three decades. I guess most of them are 'heavy' and depressing, but I think it is important that we are aware of and sympathize with the suffering of others, rather than simply turn a blind eye and ignore that everyday so many people continue to suffer in the hands of their fellow men. We should seek happiness whenever and wherever we can, but one cannot be truly happy while others are suffering. Sometimes I think people need to be shocked out of apathy and into action, thus, I hope these images will touch you as well, in one way or another...

  
       
       
       
       
       
   
"EARTHRISE"
  
   
This mind-opening image was the first-ever colour photograph of the Earth as it appears from deep space. On Apollo 8, NASA astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and William Anders had just become the first humans to leave Earth orbit, entering lunar orbit on Christmas Eve 1969, when Anders took this photo.
 
   
 
       
       
       
       
       
       
   
'TANK MAN'
 
   
The anonymous man photographed by Jeff Widener (Associated Press) during the Tiananmen Square protests on June 5, 1989. He stood alone in front of a column of tanks preventing their advance. Click here to see a video on You Tube.
 
   
 
   

 

  
   
 
       
       
       
   
 
   
SEBASTIÃO SALGADO
 
   
I don't think any other photographer in history has had the ability to portray the human condition in a single snapshot in the way Salgado is able to. His images are simply superb. I strongly encourage you to look at his books, such as 'Workers', 'Migrations' and 'Sahel'.
 
   
 
   
 
   
 
   
 
   
 
   
 
   
 
       
       
       
       
       
   
"THE OLD MAN AND THE APE "
 
   
This image by James Balog (2003) requires no caption or explanation. A beautiful reminder of how we are still part of the animal kingdom...
 
   
 
       
       
       
       
       
   
 
   
"THE VULTURE AND THE CHILD "
 
   
This photograph was taken on 1 March 1993, which won Kevin Carter a Pullitzer Prize in 1994. The image of the vulture watching a starving little girl is somewhat haunting. Sadly, Carter committed suicide in that same year, which is said to be related to much of what he saw during his work. Wikipedia quotes that part of his suicide note read:
 
   
"I am haunted by the vivid memories of killings and corpses and anger and pain ... of starving or wounded children, of trigger-happy madmen, often police, of killer executioners..."
  
   
 
       
       
       
   
 
       
       
   
"HOODED MAN AND HIS SON"
 
   
This picture by French photographer Jean-Marc Bouju (Associated Press) won him the World Press Photo of the Year (2003). It was taken in An Najaf, Iraq, 31 March 2003. It is said to be an Iraqi prisioner comforting his son at a holding center for POWs.
  
   
 
   
 
       
       
       
       
       
   
"VIETNAM NAPALM VICTIM"
 
   
This photo taken by Nick Út (Associated Press) is likely to be one of the most memorable images of the 20th century, unfortunately representing much of the pain that humans have inflicted on each other. The girl in the centre of the photo (Phan Thị Kim Phúc) was approximately nine years old at the time, and is seen here running naked after being severely burnt by napalm.
  
   
 
       
       
       
       
       
       
   
"THE MASSACRE OF HALABJA"
  
   

In March 1988 Iraq government forces carried out a gas attack against the civilian population of the Iraq Kurdish town of Halabja. It seems that a variety of chemical weapons were used including mustard gas and the nerve gas sarin. The genocide is said to have killed between 3,000 and 5,000 people immediately, but thousands were to die in the subsequent years as a result of the attack. As a 15 year-old, I was haunted by the images of dead mothers cuddling babies in their arms. I still think that few images can better illustrate the studipity and the level of viciousness that human beings are capable of. I would really like to acknowledge the authorship of this photograph, but I was unfortunately unable to find the name of the photographer.

 
   
 
       
       
       
       
       
       
   
"THE ROMEO AND JULIET OF SARAJEVO"
  
   
Bosko Brckic and Admira Ismic were both 25 at the time of their untimely death in May 1993. They had been sweethearts since high school, and while he was a Serb she was a Muslim. According to reports, they were simultaneously shot in Sarajevo, during the Yugoslavian war. A soldier reports that Bosko fell instantly, but Admira was still alive, so she crawled over and hugged him, and that’s how they died, in each other’s arms. Despite the senseless violence that has been corroding mankind since the dawn of times, humans can still find the ability to love through the worst of the times. This photos seems to have been taken by Jerome Delay (Associated Press).
  
   
 
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
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