Of the countless photographs which have been taken since the camera’s introduction in the 1800s, there have been a few images that have defined generations, altered the course of wars and brought the World’s attention to previously unknown regions.
Images such as those showing a vulture stalking towards a starved Sudanese child; the gaunt survivors of the concentration camps; a Buddhist monk burning himself alive in protest of war; and perhaps some of the most shocking visual images of recent times, the photographs of office workers jumping out of the burning World Trade Centre.
These pictures are difficult to look at, but look we must. For they are important testaments to our history.
Pictures such as these convey an instant message to the viewer and awaken our strongest emotions of anger, compassion and fear, however far removed we are from the stories they tell by time or distance.
These are, in short, pictures of historic value. They have to be seen.
