They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but for some lucky and daring photographers, that picture can be worth $15,000 and some serious notoriety. The Pulitzer Prize for photography has existed in various forms since 1942, and the award has been given to photographers of some of the most important images ever recorded.

While most pictures tell a tale, the ones chosen for the award often have stories of their own that explain why or how the image was taken. These 10 stand above the rest as some of the most important Pulitzer Prize–winning pictures ever taken. (The year of the award appears below the title or description of the photo.)

10 Firing Squad In Iran
1980

Jahangir Razmi’s provocative photograph, Firing Squad in Iran, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1980, but Razmi didn’t receive the credit he deserved until 2006. The picture was taken on August 27, 1979, but it was published anonymously in the Iranian daily newspaper Ettela’at. Razmi was the only photographer to receive a Pulitzer Prize anonymously, but he had good reason to keep his name out of the papers alongside his intense photograph.

The picture captures the moment when a group of Kurdish militants were executed at the Sanandaj airport. Eleven prisoners were charged with firearm trafficking, inciting riots, and murder in a 30-minute trial. Their execution was carried out immediately afterward.

Razmi followed the condemned men outside where they were quickly put in place for execution. His picture captured a moment when some in the firing squad had fired and some hadn’t. Razmi’s name was protected by the publisher to ensure the photographer’s safety from government reprisal. In 2006, Razmi finally revealed that he was the photographer in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.^[1]

9 Fire Escape Collapse
1976

The 1976 Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography went to Stanley Forman for his picture titled Fire Escape Collapse. Forman captured the moment when a woman and a child fell from a collapsed fire escape in Boston on July 22, 1975. The two victims were 19-year-old Diana Bryant and her goddaughter, two-year-old Tiare Jones.

Bryant died as a result of the collapse, which occurred when a turntable ladder on a fire engine was being extended to save them at a height of approximately 15 meters (50 ft). Miraculously, Jones was saved when she landed on Bryant’s body.

When Forman arrived on the scene, he put himself in a position where he could capture what appeared to be the start of a daring rescue. Firefighter Bob O’Neil was in the process of reaching Bryant and Jones when the fire escape suddenly gave way beneath them.

Forman continued to shoot the images as the fall took place but realized that he “didn’t want to see them hit the ground.” So he turned away at the last moment. The photograph was also recognized as the World Press Photo of the Year.^[2]

8 The Murder Of Heather Heyer
2018

In 2017, Ryan Kelly was working his final day at The Daily Progress in Charlottesville, Virginia. On that day, a protest was carried out in the city over plans to remove a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee.

During the demonstration, a man who had ties to a white supremacist movement drove his car into a group of counterprotesters. That attack led to the death of Heather Heyer. It also won Kelly the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography in 2018 for his untitled photograph showing the moment when Heyer and around 35 others were struck.^[3]

After heading outside, Kelly began taking long-shot photographs of the march. But as soon as a car began to barrel down the road, the journalist in him kicked in and he captured the moment that led to Heyer’s death.

The picture became emblematic of the demonstrations taking place across the country and the racial tensions spreading throughout. Kelly had already accepted a new position as the social media manager for a local brewery but opted to remain in the office to help out in case the Unite The Right rally got out of hand.

7 Lone Jewish Woman
2007

Oded Balilty was working for the Associated Press when he was told to photograph a group of Jewish settlers protesting against Israeli security forces in the West Bank. The picture was taken on February 1, 2006, and Balilty was later chosen as the 2007 Pulitzer Prize winner in Breaking News Photography for snapping the image.

As of this writing, Balilty is the only Israeli photographer to be honored with the award, although he has been nominated twice in this category. For this shot, Balilty was on the scene in the settlement of Amona, east of Ramallah, when he noticed a single woman standing up to a flood of security forces by herself.

He quickly took the photograph of the woman’s resistance against the forces advancing on her position. Although as many as 200 people were injured while resisting the Israeli security forces during the clearing of the settlement, this one woman became the defining symbol of opposition against the government in Israel. Not only did the photo capture the intensity of the moment but of the entire situation as well.^[4]

6 Burst Of Joy
1974

Slava “Sal” Veder was working for the Associated Press when he covered the return of Lieutenant Colonel Robert L. Stirm at Travis Air Force Base in California. Stirm had been held as a prisoner of war by the North Vietnamese for more than five years. He was greeted on the tarmac by his 15-year-old daughter (center) and the rest of his family. The photograph truly captured a moment of joy as his daughter rushed to see the father she had lost more than five years earlier.

When the Burst of Joy photographer was chosen to receive the Pulitzer Prize in 1974, copies of the picture were made and sent to each family member in the photograph. Now adults, the children display their copies proudly in their homes.^[5]

Unseen in the picture is the anguish felt by Stirm who had received a “Dear John” letter only three days before he arrived. He and his wife divorced within a year, but the photograph stands as a beautiful depiction of a soldier returning from war to a loving family.

5 The Terror Of War
1973

Napalm was used throughout the Vietnam War. Although intended to be a defoliant, it was often used against enemies and civilians alike. When such an event occurred on June 8, 1972, Huynh Cong Ut, professionally known as Nick Ut, was there to document one of the most harrowing stories of the war.

The picture was taken as a group of terrified children ran down Route 1 near Trang Bang village following a napalm attack against a suspected Vietcong safe haven. Featured prominently in the photograph is nine-year-old Kim Phuc whose nudity triggered Facebook’s content censor back in 2016.

Despite the eventual censorship from Facebook, The Terror of War was chosen for the 1973 Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography as well as the World Press Photo of the Year. Not only did Ut take the iconic photograph, but he also rushed the young girl to the hospital. There, she was saved despite having sustained burns to more than 30 percent of her body.^[6]

4 Saigon Execution
1969

On February 1, 1968, South Vietnamese General Nguyen Ngoc Loan, who was the chief of the national police at the time, executed a Vietcong officer named Nguyen Van Lem. Loan carried out the execution on the streets of Saigon in plain view of anyone who happened to be watching. This included NBC’s television cameramen and Associated Press photographer Eddie Adams, who took this iconic photograph.

Immediately after shooting the man in the head, the general walked over to the reporters and plainly said, “These guys kill a lot of our people, and I think Buddha will forgive me.”

Adams’s photo immediately became a symbol of the brutality of the ongoing conflict. But there was far more going on before that image was taken than was widely known at the time.

The executed man was the leader of a “revenge squad” and had killed dozens of unarmed civilians earlier that day. Despite this, the imagery of his execution haunted Adams, who regretted taking the Pulitzer Prize–winning photograph. “The general killed the Vietcong; I killed the general with my camera.”^[7]

3 Raising The Flag On Iwo Jima
1945

There are many photos of soldiers fighting in World War II. But the image that became the iconic representation of the American fighting spirit was taken by Joe Rosenthal at the top of Mount Suribachi on February 23, 1945.

The photograph was taken during the Battle of Iwo Jima about 90 minutes after a smaller flag was raised on the mountain. The image was so popular throughout the United States that it became synonymous with American pride and the Marine Corps’ fighting spirit.

A sculpture of the event was made into the Marine Corps War Memorial located in Arlington Ridge Park. Rosenthal took photographs throughout the war, but this image is his best known. He received little money for his work but has since been honored for his contributions.

Following his death, he was posthumously awarded the Department of the Navy Distinguished Public Service Award by the United States Marine Corps. Sig Gissler, an administrator for the Pulitzer Prizes for Columbia University, once said, “Of all the images that have captured Pulitzer Prizes, none is more memorable than Joe Rosenthal’s raising of the flag on Iwo Jima.”^[8]

2 Victim Of The Oklahoma City Bombing
1996

The Oklahoma City bombing was the most devastating case of homegrown terrorism that the United States has ever seen. The bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City resulted in the deaths of 168 people.

This tragedy was particularly devastating due to the presence of a day care center in the building which had 15 of the 19 child victims of the attack. Though the bombing and its aftermath were well-documented at the time, the Pulitzer Prize–winning photograph by Charles Porter IV serves as a haunting reminder of the terror caused that day.

Taken on April 19, 1995, the photograph shows a fireman holding the body of a severely wounded infant in his hands. Porter was not a photographer covering the event but happened to have a camera on him.

He worked as a credit officer at Liberty Bank when the bombing occurred. As he was an aspiring journalist who was taught to “keep a loaded camera in my car at all times,” he was ready and able to snap the photograph that earned him the 1996 Pulitzer Prize in Spot News Photography.^[9]

1 The Vulture And The Little Girl
1994

Of all the Pulitzer Prize–winning photographs, The Vulture and the Little Girl serves as the one with the most tragic story. Kevin Carter took this picture—which appeared in The New York Times on March 26, 1993—to document the situation going on in Sudan at that time.

The child, who is a boy but was believed to be a girl at the time, was struggling to reach a United Nations feeding center when he collapsed, weak from starvation. Carter took the picture of the emaciated toddler with a vulture standing nearby and received the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography in 1994.

The image immediately evoked harsh criticism of Carter, whom many condemned for taking a picture instead of helping the child. Four months after receiving the Pulitzer, Carter committed suicide. The psychological trauma he suffered from witnessing such hardship accompanied by the criticism he received for covering it pushed him to end his own life.

Bishop Desmond Tutu wrote of Carter’s suicide, “And we know a little about the cost of being traumatized that drove some to suicide, that, yes, these people were human beings operating under the most demanding of conditions.”^[10]

Jonathan is a graphic artist, illustrator, and writer. He is a retired soldier and enjoys researching and writing about history, science, theology, and many other subjects.

Photos dominate the modern world as they never have before. We’re saturated with professional pictures, selfies, and everything in between. We’re used to plenty of mundane images; any social media profile can provide those. And we’ve all seen the sensational pictures embedded in every meme and news report.

Yet it’s the combination of the mundane and the terrible—once you know it’s there—that is most arresting. Some photos’ stark simplicity becomes haunting when you realize the true story underneath.

10 The Fredericksburg Ice House

This image seems to be merely a pastoral view from the 19th century. It’s only marginally more interesting to hear that this is a view of the famous Fredericksburg battlefield, a couple of years after thousands of Union soldiers fell there during the US Civil War. It seems unremarkable—after all, the soldiers are all gone.

Or are they?

After the fighting, Union troops were in a rush to dispose of their dead comrades during a brief truce. The cold December weather made digging hard, and eventually, the gravediggers got tired. They looked around for any other place they could stash the bodies. Their eyes settled on the abandoned icehouse of a Mr. Wallace. That’s the long, low building in the right foreground.

With little ceremony, the burial details began dumping their deceased brethren inside. The sight sickened several onlookers. One soldier described the scene:

[They would] drag the bodies to the pit of an old ice house, 15 feet deep, and cast them, all turned and twisted and doubled; the feet of one sticking up, the head of another, the arms and back of another; the upturned faces, beside the protruding entrails. Hundreds were to be thrown in, and what a horrid spectacle the whole mass would present, the imagination must picture.

An officer recalled:

The most sickening sight of all was when they threw the dead, some four or five hundred in number, into Wallace’s empty icehouse, where they were found—a hecatomb of skeletons—after the war.^[1]

After that, the armies eventually moved on. The populace had fled. The city remained a ghost town for the rest of the war—in more ways than one. No one remembered what lay behind the icehouse’s rickety door.

When the photographer took this image two years after the battle, he had no idea how many decomposing corpses were right there under his nose.

9 The Lawson Family Portrait

Nearly everyone’s been in a family portrait at some point. This photo looks quite run-of-the-mill. Most of the family members look fairly wooden—though the father standing at right has a certain far-off look in his eye. His name was Charles Lawson. And he was already planning on murdering everyone around him.

The Lawsons were a poor family, eking out a meager living as tobacco farmers in North Carolina. Their poverty must have weighed heavily on Charles’s mind. Another factor in his disquiet was that he had incestuously impregnated his daughter Marie (back row, second from left)—and she’d started confiding that fact in the neighbors.

A week before Christmas 1929, Charles finally decided to pay for a family portrait, because he knew he wasn’t going to need the money.^[2] On Christmas afternoon, the father hid in the barn with a 12-gauge shotgun and lay in wait for his daughters Carrie (front row, far right) and Maybell (front row, second from left) as they walked to their uncle’s house. He blasted them at point-blank range, then finished them off with the butt of the gun. Stalking back to the house, he gunned down his wife Fannie (back row, standing far right) on the front porch. The he charged into his own home as an invader.

As Marie screamed, he shot her in cold blood, along with his unborn child/grandchild. The small boys James (front row, far left) and Raymond (front row, second from right) ran for cover, but Charles hunted them down in a macabre game of hide and seek. Last was baby Mary Lou (in Fannie’s arms, top right). He finished her off without wasting a bullet and then killed himself in the woods shortly thereafter. The only survivor was son Arthur Lawson (rear row, far left), who was out of the house at the time.

Within seven days, a standard portrait had become the last record of a family about to be destroyed by its deranged patriarch.

8 A Doomed Expedition

All expeditions to the far corners of the Earth are fraught with peril. Many of them, especially in the early days, never even reached their destinations. The Terra Nova Expedition, led by British captain Robert Falcon Scott, was one that did. He and four others had set out to reach the South Pole in late 1911 and succeeded. The photo should be recording a moment of triumph, yet there is no elation. Instead, the men look haggard. Despair settles on their furrowed brows.

They are haggard from their rough journey. They are joyless because they know it was a race between British and Norwegian teams to reach the pole first, and they’d lost. They are hopeless because the return trip seemed an insurmountable obstacle.

It was. The Norwegians were long gone and could be of no help. The group had already endured punishing blizzards and food shortages on the southward journey; returning north would mean similar hardships, with less energy and fewer supplies to sustain them. Each man in this photo had little to look forward to in his short time remaining, just cold, misery, and the real possibility of death.

They marched on for weeks, slowed by multiple cases of severe frostbite. Poor weather hampered their progress even further, as did time-consuming searches for pre-established supply dumps that were far too well-hidden. Two men died along the way; the last three made it within 18 kilometers (11 mi) of a resupply camp before perishing. What’s more, they knew how close they were but were unable to reach it. As Scott wrote in his diary’s final entry:

Every day we have been ready to start for our depot 11 miles away, but outside the door of the tent it remains a scene of whirling drift. I do not think we can hope for any better things now. We shall stick it out to the end, but we are getting weaker, of course, and the end cannot be far.

It seems a pity but I do not think I can write more.

R. SCOTT.

For God’s sake look after our people.^[3]

When a belated rescue team found the last campsite eight months later, the corpses of the polar team still lay in their sleeping bags. Their camera was with them. It surrendered this photograph only after all its subjects were long dead.

7 A Storm On The Mountain

The photo quality here looks awful, like the above images were shot on an early flip phone. At first glance, it seems nothing more than someone’s grainy camping photography, perhaps depicting some bad weather. In reality, the camera was top-notch, and it was capturing some of the worst “weather” in Washington state history.

In 1980, Mount St. Helens in the southwestern part of the state was a slumbering volcano that had decided to stop hitting “snooze.” It rumbled and smoldered ominously for months on end. Yet some people remained in harm’s way. Local residents refused to evacuate, including a famously cantankerous old innkeeper. Geologists and volcanologists, despite their misgivings, stayed close by to monitor activity. And some photographers, eager to document the foreboding phenomenon, crept closer to the stirring giant. One of these was Robert Landsburg.

A freelancer supporting National Geographic, Landsburg was on the latest of numerous trips to the mountain. His morning on May 18 began like any other. Waking in his serene campsite, he found a good vista and started snapping photos. But at 8:32 AM, everything changed. A 5.1-magnitude earthquake sent a terrifying landslide down the side of the mountain. Moments later, an eruption of magma, volcanic gas, and ash followed, a one-two punch of rapidly approaching terror.^[4]

Simultaneously enthralled and horrified, Landsburg kept shooting. It didn’t take long for him to realize that he could never outrun the onrushing blast. Resigning himself to his fate, Landsburg calmly finished his work, dismounted the camera from the tripod, stuffed it into his backpack, and then laid down atop his equipment. His body would protect the precious film.

Fifty-seven people died that day, Landsburg among them. But his jaw-dropping final photographs survived.

6 Tropical Tranquility

This image looks like mottled old-time footage, perhaps an old VHS tape of a seaside vacation. Beachgoers wade in the shallows, a familiar sight on any coastline. A second look shows that the breakers beyond the shallows look rather . . . large. They are. When these waders ventured out, they didn’t know they were wading into the path of destruction.

Indonesia’s and Thailand’s western coasts in 2004 were densely populated, chock full of everyone from native fishermen to foreign sightseers. Christmas passed peacefully and uneventfully. The following day, however, a gargantuan offshore earthquake unleashed a terrifying tsunami. Experts estimate that the tsunami’s energy was double that of all the bombs used in World War II, combined.

As often happens, the tidal wave was preceded by a drainage effect, as water was sucked away from the beach to feed the growing wall offshore. Tragically, many people on the coast mistook this for a sort of benign natural occurrence. Hundreds stuck around to watch. Some even reveled in the unusual circumstance, walking out onto the former seafloor and picking through old junk or stranded fish.

When the water returned, it swept all before it. An approximate death toll climbed to nearly a quarter of a million people.^[5] Some of the first were the folks in this picture, who had only minutes or seconds to live when it was taken.

5 A Skyline’s Last Morning

September 11, 2001, has passed into the history books, but each living witness has had the day’s events burned into his or her memory. The world changed for many. Western countries awoke to modern realities of terrorism, and nations the world over would be shaped by their response. Approximately 3,000 lives ended, and the loss reverberated throughout countless families, friendships, and workplaces. Most visibly, New York City’s iconic skyline was forever altered.

Photographer David Monderer loved that skyline, and he’d been waiting nearly a month to do it justice with a good photo. The sunny Tuesday morning offered the perfect opportunity. He strode out onto the Manhattan Bridge walkway, aimed, and took this shot.^[6]

The photo above is one of the very last to show the Twin Towers as they were. Looking at the image, it is easy to imagine the activities inside—people beginning their daily routines, fortifying themselves with coffee for the first morning meetings. They had no idea that the cloudless blue sky above already held two airliners winging their way closer, bearing a deadly destiny.

4 An Alaskan Vacation

The man in this photo looks scruffy but perfectly at ease. Behind him is an abandoned Fairbanks bus, signifying the location as Alaska. One might think he’s a local goofing off, or maybe a tourist who found a good photo op. One would not guess that he was slowly starving to death.

His name is Christopher McCandless. The unassuming man is actually rather famous as a free spirit, being the subject of a book and film called Into the Wild. Proclaiming his desire to throw off the shackles of modern society and live authentically, he struck off into the Alaskan hinterlands in spring 1992. There, he could commune with nature.

Unfortunately, nature showed no desire for communion. Without adequate training or supplies, McCandless was in over his head from the start. He managed to forage for some edible plants and was occasionally successful in hunting attempts, but even these were of limited use to someone who had no idea how to properly preserve the food he gathered. After three months, he tried to hike back to civilization but found the trail blocked by a swollen river. Defeated—and unaware of another viable crossing point less than 1.6 kilometers (1 mi) away—he returned to the bus and settled in to meet his fate.^[7]

When a hiker found McCandless, the man had been dead for approximately three weeks. His emaciated body weighed only 30 kilograms (66 lb). Stashed away amid his meager possessions was an undeveloped roll of film, from which the above image was recovered.

3 More Northern Serenity

Staying in Alaska, we fast-forward to 2003. Here, we see a happy couple perched on the pontoon of a seaplane, obviously ready to enjoy a wilderness adventure. They got more than they bargained for.

The man’s name is Timothy Treadwell, a zealous environmentalist. He had traveled to Katmai National Park with his girlfriend, Amie Huguenard, for a pet project: documenting grizzly bears. Treadwell held a strong affection for the beasts and felt them to be kindred spirits. It amounted to a more extreme version of Christopher McCandless’s desire to be one with nature—while McCandless was willing to hunt to survive, Treadwell expected to coexist peacefully with all the animals he encountered. Previous visits had convinced him that the bears would become used to his presence, see him as nonthreatening, and leave him alone.

He was tragically mistaken. On October 6, 2003—scant days after this picture was taken—Treadwell and Huguenard’s campsite was invaded by a hungry brown bear. First Treadwell, then his girlfriend were mauled by the remorseless attacker. They may have been still alive when the animal began devouring them.^[8]

This image is the last known picture of the couple. But it’s not the last record. Treadwell’s video camera was still running when the attack took place. Only audio was captured—a flurry of agonized cries and dying screams.

2 An Army’s Last Exercises

Here, we see quite an archaic throwback: cavalry. These horse soldiers look like they hail from the 19th century. However, this picture was taken in 1939. The men are Polish soldiers, and they unknowingly stand on the precipice of disaster.

As part of regular military exercises, all Polish servicemen would practice maneuvers and operations. The cavalry’s role was to act as scouts and skirmishers, fighting on foot when necessary. Many of the men here might have been nervous about rising tensions with Germany but felt confident that Britain and France, Poland’s allies, would swiftly send aid to counter any aggression.

They were sadly mistaken. The crushing blitzkrieg would strike within a few weeks, and the Western allies would not react in time to stop it. The Polish army would stand alone, fall alone, and then cease to exist. These cavalrymen would be swept away by a tide of tanks and mechanized infantry.^[9] In that way, they are emblematic of all the doomed forces of their country—dandelion ghosts staring down a hurricane.

1 Fleeting Goodwill

A handshake is the simplest means we have for signaling peace and friendship. Intended originally to show you weren’t holding a weapon, handshakes evolved into a minimum standard for mutual respect. Here, Archduke Franz Ferdinand warmly grasps the hand of one of his subjects. The date is June 28, 1914.^[10]

He could not know that, within hours, he and his wife would be dead by an assassin’s bullets. He could not know that their deaths would ignite festering tensions throughout Europe, eventually plunging the continent (and the world) into war. And there’s no way he could have known the effects of that war: the rise of fascism and Comumnism, another world war, widespread societal breakdown, cultural collapse, atomic standoffs, and terrific new tensions that are still rippling through history.

As The New York Times put it in 1915: “Those two shots brought the world to arms, and the war that followed has brought devastation upon three continents and profoundly affected two others, and the tocsin has sounded in the remotest islands of the sea.”

The reverberations of 1914 remain with us today. It is hard to know what might have happened had June 28, 1914, gone differently; perhaps some flashpoint was inevitable. But the world would surely have been better off if the handshakes had prevailed.

David F. Ellrod lives in Maryland with his wife, three daughters, and one very excitable dog. He can be reached on Twitter @DavidEllrod.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. This rings true for the rare photographs in this list that tells you tales of suffering, courage and hope experienced firsthand by the photographers and captured through their lenses.

Note that some of the pictures are disturbing therefore powerful and quiet alive. Scroll down at your own risk.

Here is a list of 10 disturbing photographs that shocked the world.

10. Kosovo Refugees

Photographer: Carol Guzy

In 2000 Carol Guzy received a Pulitzer Prize for the touching photographs she had taken of the Kosovo refugees. In this particular photo, a 2-years-old refugee child (Agim Shala) was being passed through the barb wired fence to his family on the other side. Guzy currently works for the Washington Post and has won the Pulitzer four times.

Photographer: Carolyn Cole

Very aptly named, the photograph certainly says a thousand unsaid words. It mirrors the devastating effects of the Civil War in Liberia. The picture was taken on the streets of Monrovia, capital of Liberia. Cole won the Pulitzer in 2004, for her coverage of the siege of Monrovia. For the records, Carolyn Cole is a staff photographer for the Los Angeles Times.

8. World Trade Center 9/11

Photographer: Steve Ludlum

This photograph is an eyewitness to history. It captures the power of universal destruction. Ludlum said, “It’s an iconic image. When people think of the World Trade Center disaster they will think about this photograph.” In 2002, Ludlum won the Pulitzer for Breaking News Photography.

7. Thailand Massacre

Photographer: Neal Ulevich

Neal Ulevich is an American photographer who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1977 for capturing “disorder and brutality in the streets of Bangkok.” In 1976 the worsening political situation in Thailand culminated into violent confrontation at The Thammasat University. Several students who were demonstrating against dictatorial Field Marshall Thanom Kittikachorn’s plan of returning into the country, were shot, beaten, hanged, mutilated and even burnt to death.

6. After the Storm

Photographer: Patrick Farrell

In 2008 Farrell captured the horrors experienced by the victims of the tropical storm Hanna that had hit Haiti. He documented the after math in black-and-white stills, more of which you can find here. He was awarded Pulitzer in 2009. In the above picture, we have a young boy rescuing a stroller from the wreck of his home.

5. The Power of One

Photographer: Oded Balilty

Oded Balilty is an Israeli documentary photographer. In 2006, when the Israeli government decided to uproot illegal settlers, a ferocious clash was inevitable. What we have here is a brave 16-year-old Jewish settler, Ynet Nili resisting the authorities. Later, Nili had said, “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.”

4. After the Tsunami

Photographer: Arko Datta

This is considered as one of the most striking representation of the devastation that followed the wake of the Indian Ocean tsunami. Arko Datta is an award-winning photojournalists from India who is also recognised for his photographs of the Gujarat riots, depicting the plight of victims of the riots. ‘After the Tsunami’ is a “graphic, historical and starkly emotional picture” that depicts a woman mourning the death of a relative.

3. Operation Lion Heart

Photographer: Deanne Fitzmaurice

Fitzmaurice is an American photographer and photojournalist won had won the highly respected Pulitzer Prize in 2005 for her sensitive photo essay ‘Operation Lion Heart’. ‘Lion Heart’ is the nickname given to Saleh Khalaf, a nine year old boy maimed by an explosion in Iraq. The boy was brought to a hospital in Oakland, CA where he underwent several life-threatening surgeries. His unwillingness to die and his courage gave him the nickname – Saleh Khalaf meaning ‘Lion Heart’.

2. Bhopal Gas Tragedy 1984

Photographer: Pablo Bartholomew

In December 1984, gas leaking from the Union Carbide India Limited storage tank killed as many as 15,000 and injured 558,125 people in Bhopal. This massive environmental and human disaster was a result of ignorance in standard safety and maintenance procedures. Bartholomew while documenting the catastrophe came across a man who was burying a child.

1. Tragedy of Omayra Sanchez

Photographer: Frank Fourier

1985 Columbia, the Nevado del Ruiz volcano eruption lead to a mudslide that killed more than 25,000 people. Frank Fournier captured the tragic image of Omayra Sanchez, a 13-years-old girl trapped for 60 hours under the debris of her home which won the 1985 World Press Photo award.

As to the little girl’s fate, she tragically died due to hypothermia and gangrene following three days of struggle which was followed by millions of people around the world on television. This erupted major criticism on the Columbian government for commencing a weak rescue mission.

Here are some other great lists; rare historical photographs, World’s most expensive photographs, Perfectly Timed Photographs, Fantastic Nature Photographs etc. You may also like these lists.

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The 2010’s, as they’re now being called, have been eventful to say the least. If we’d have to sum them up, we’d say that it was a decade of widespread – and permanent—change around the world. Economic instability, civil wars and general social unrest dominated the headlines in many countries, though we also made massive strides in areas like space exploration, medicine and memes. From the emancipation of the gay community around the world (at least on paper) to the violent revolts in the Middle East that changed the region forever, the decade was a rather versatile mix of groundbreaking events.

See Also: 10 Incredible Photographs That Won The Pulitzer Prize

This was also the decade when journalism went out of the professional newsroom and on to the streets. Because of the rapid rise of social media and widespread accessibility to mobile phones, some of the best coverage of major events of the decade came via photographs and videos captured by amateur bystanders, rather than acclaimed photo journalists.

From widely-shared images of the Arab Spring to our first photographic glimpse of the surface of Mars, here’s the decade summed up with ten of its most powerful photographs.

10 Chile Protests, 2019

In the photo: Protesters in Chile below a mural in Santiago, protecting themselves from tear gas in the midst of a brutal crackdown by the police and military forces.

2019 alone saw many parts of the world—from Hong Kong to Ethiopia to Venezuela—erupt in protests and uprisings against their respective governments on a variety of issues. Few of them, however, have been as impactful and popular as the one in Chile. It’s being called Chile’s worst unrest in recent decades, which is saying something as Chile – much like the rest of South America – has seen its fair share of unrest in the past.

2019’s protests, however, erupted due to a wide range of issues that had been gradually developing over the years; from rising inequality to excessive privatization of education. They have been unprecedented in terms of participation, especially from the youth. At its peak, around one million people were on the streets, though that hasn’t sat too well with the government.The military and police forces have been accused of human rights violations like sexual assault, torture, excessive use of force and extra judicial killings of journalists. The crackdown has been so brutal that in many cases, tear gas or rubber pellets caused many people to go partially or fully blind.

9 Eruption Of Eyjafjallajökull, 2010

In the photo: Ash and lava erupting out of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull in the backdrop of Northern Lights.

While it may sound like a non-event to most non-Europeans, the eruption of Eyjafjallajokull in Iceland dumped a large amount of ash into Europe’s atmosphere, and the effects could be felt in far off countries, too. According to some, it caused the largest disruption of air services since World War 2.

The eruption of Eyjafjallajokull also posed other problems. It’s usually followed by the eruption of its sister volcano, Katla, within a span of a decade, as their magma chambers are interconnected. That is rather concerning, as that one is assumed to be far deadlier and more impactful, and its eruption could even have global consequences.

8 Baton Rouge Protests, 2016

In the photo: A young woman with a rose standing against a fully-armed anti-riot police force, as protests against racially-motivated police brutality intensified in the U.S.

The photograph isn’t just significant because of the moment it was taken, it also sums up the state of civil unrest around the world at that time. Peaceful protesters have been, throughout the decade, met with excessive force and the full might of the state’s armory on little or no provocation, from Ukraine to Syria to Iran. While the death count wasn’t as high in the U.S. and many other European countries, police brutality took the form of a spate of unprovoked and unauthorized murders, which were often racially motivated. Protests against it were also often met with force.

It intensified the conversation around the appropriate amount of force police should be allowed to use, causing many states to take a variety of measures like installing permanent cameras on all police vehicles.

7 Osama’s Death, 2011

In the photo: Former U.S. president Barack Obama and his Security team receiving live updates on Osama’s capture and eventual death.

By far one of the most iconic photos of the last decade, it was a visual representation of the culmination of the War on Terror, and its effects were felt across the world. Many countries other than the U.S. participated in the war, though it was Osama’s capture and punishment by death by U.S. Marines that really put the conflict to an end. That particular conflict, at least, as terrorism around the world is still going as strong as it was in 2011. Regardless, bringing Laden to justice did a lot to lower the morale of Al Qaeda’s lower ranks, bringing relative stability to many parts of the Middle East and South Asia.

6 Libyan Revolution, 2011

In the photo: A rebel fighter celebrates as they move in on the loyalist forces in Ajdabiya, Libya.

For the Middle East, the decade started with a series of violent uprisings – now collectively known as the Arab Spring—in many countries. The issues were as diverse as the people out on the streets across the vast region, and its effects could still be seen in socio-political movements around the world. It was the first revolution – and a successful one, too, in many countries – that was broadcast almost entirely through social media; a trend that would be adopted in all subsequent protests of the decade.

What started as peaceful organization of protesters in Morocco, Tunisia and nearby countries in early 2010 soon snowballed into a widespread series of violent and armed uprisings against deep-seated structural issues. Some of the most violent fighting took place in Libya – as well as Syria, though we’ll get to that one in a bit – where large regions of the country took up arms against Muammar Gaddafi’s government. He was eventually ousted and rather brutally killed by the rebels, as a final act of defiance against what the people saw as an authoritarian and corrupt government.

The ripples of the Libyan revolution – and the Arab Spring in general – could be still felt around the world. Many places in the Middle East are still reeling from the after-effects of the various wars. Moreover, massive chunks of the civilian population have been rendered homeless – and, in some cases, stateless – due to consistent, still-ongoing conflict across the region.

5 Paris Terrorist Attacks, 2015

In the photo: Spectators move into a soccer pitch as a series of explosions are heard outside the Stade de France, marking the beginning of the deadliest terrorist attacks in France’s history.

There were few events in the decade that changed geo-politics—especially in the western world—like the 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris. While the city had already experienced Charlie Hebdo shootings earlier in the year, the coordinated attacks by ISIS at multiple civilian centers in Paris held a more ominous warning – no place, even the heart of Western Europe, is safe from ISIS. OF course, ISIS has been all but defeated by now, though it was still a strong force back in 2015. Moreover, the attacks influenced far more profound changes in European politics and public opinion.

The Paris attacks turned popular opinion against immigrants, as this was also the year that saw a resurgence in the popularity of far-right parties across Europe. This was also the year that many European countries started wondering if keeping borders open was the best idea. This debate on immigration has already had far-reaching consequences, like Brexit, and continues to shape policymaking around the world.

4 Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill, 2010

In the photo: Fire crews trying to contain the fire on the offshore oil rig Deepwater Horizon, just off the shore of Louisiana.

The Deepwater Horizon was, at the height of its operations, one of BP’s biggest oil rigs, which is what made its explosion and eventual oil spill into the Gulf of Mexico even more concerning. It has been widely claimed to be the biggest environmental disaster in the history of the U.S., pumping nearly 210 million gallons of oil in the ocean. While we don’t even know the full extent of its impact yet, we know that it has caused widespread abnormalities in the already-endangered species found in the region and devastated entire ecosystems in the affected regions.

The spill sparked a conversation on the shadier operations of Big Oil around the world, as public opinion – especially in the Southeast states most impacted by the spill – quickly turned against offshore drilling and fracking.

3 Unite The Right Rally, 2017

In the photo: The image that became inherently associated with the far-right Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville.

The Unite the Right in Charlottesville was seen as the biggest show of strength from the far right around that time, though that’s not accurate. Far bigger – and far Nazi-er – rallies had already taken place in European countries like Poland and Germany. The Charlottesville rally – initially called to protest the removal of Confederate General Robert. E. Lee –was noteworthy for bringing the growing divide between the global right and left to global attention.

The rally was criticized for its racist and discriminatory slogans, and, interestingly, many of the people identified from the photographs eventually lost their jobs. Regardless, the rally—or rather the fierce opposition to it from local student groups—ended up making an impact on the national psyche. The divide between the protesters and counter protesters reached its peak when a Unite the Right protester drove his car into a large group of protesters, killing one person and injuring many others. The rally drew criticism – as well as praise, depending on the country it was coming from – from state leaders around the world.

2 The Afghan Woman, 2010

In the photo: Bibi Aisha features on the cover of TIME magazine, sparking a global conversation around women’s rights, especially in conflict zones.

There are few photos that get imprinted in public memory like this one taken by Jodi Bieber in 2010. It depicts a young Afghan girl called Bibi Aisha, who was around 18 years old at the time it was taken. Her nose and ears had been mutilated by her husband and his family members, and was left for dead before being rescued by American aid workers nearby.

The photograph served as a global reminder of the atrocities women still face around the world, and has won many coveted awards – including the World Press Photo, 2010—since it was published on the cover of TIME magazine.

1 Syrian Civil War, 2011—present

In the photo: A 70-year old Mohammad Mohiedine Anis sits in his destroyed bedroom and listens to some music on his vinyl player, as the government’s forces take back many of the rebel-held areas across Syria with unprecedented force.

The Syrian Civil War has been one of the – if not THE – most pivotal events of the last decade. While civil unrest and violence had been on the rise in Syria for quite some time, the sheer degree of violence unleashed by both the sides since the beginning of the war in 2012 was unprecedented, in scale as well as ferocity. The war against Assad’s regime has been so huge in scale that some experts have even compared it to a world war, as many countries around the world have had a role to play in it. Geo politics aside, it also caused huge changes in the demographics of the region, as well as politics of other countries.

For one, the exodus of millions of refugees fleeing from the war has massively contributed to other major world events, and continues to be a talking point in many countries. More importantly, though, the Syrian Civil War saw the involvement of many countries in proxy roles, giving it a sort of a ‘world war’ vibe. In its early days, American fighters accidentally gunning down Russian or Iranian planes was a real possibility, which would have turned the limited conflict into a global war. While it started as an uprising, much like the other revolts of the Arab Spring, it soon turned into a sectarian conflict with far-reaching and devastating consequences for the region.

Photographs tell a story, whether intentionally or not. Sometimes small details only come to light after a photograph has been developed or, in modern times, after it has been looked at several times on a smartphone and an obscure detail makes itself clear in the background. Other times, a photograph looks perfectly normal but its backstory or events that took place after it was taken is filled with horror.

10 Stories Behind Incredible Pulitzer Prize–Winning Photographs

10 Mountain of skulls

Between 1800 and 1900, American bison were hunted by American settlers who had a seemingly unquenchable bloodthirst for the animals. Cross-country trains were packed with hunters who would aim at the bison from the windows and kill several in one go. Once the bison were down, the hunters would get out, skin them, and cut out their tongues. The remains of the bison were left to decompose in the hot sun.

Between 1872 and 1874, one railroad business shipped half a million bison hides east and eventually the bison population was almost decimated. Their numbers dwindled to mere hundreds from what was estimated to be between 30-60 million.

This photograph captured the aftermath of the horrific slaughter. It depicts a mountain of bison skulls in the Midwest during the mid-1870s.

Fortunately, conservationists, indigenous tribes, ranchers, and many more made a concerted effort to save the bison from extinction and today there are estimated to be 500,000 in the US.

9 Still missing

Devonte Hart was one of six children adopted by Jennifer and Sarah Hart.

Hart took part in a demonstration against police violence in Portland in 2014 and was photographed hugging a white police officer, anguish etched on his face. The picture went viral on various platforms and the young boy was thrust into the spotlight.

The palpable emotion visible on the boy’s face in the photo, took on a whole new meaning in March 2018 when the world woke up to the news that the Hart family’s SUV had gone over a cliff in California. All the members of the family were in the car at the time, and police believed that the driver, Jennifer, went over the cliff intentionally. Five bodies were recovered at the time. Later, Ciera’s body (one of the six children) was recovered and remains of Hannah Hart were found on a beach in May 2018.

It was subsequently found that Jennifer was under the influence of alcohol while driving and that Sarah was in the passenger seat looking up different ways to end one’s life. One of the searches included “How long does it take to die from hypothermia while drowning in a car?”

During the ensuing investigation, terrible details of the Hart’s family life came to light. There have been allegations of child abuse and one of the family’s neighbors told a news channel that the 15-year-old Devonte would often come to her home, asking for food. She went on to say that Jennifer and Sarah Hart would starve the children as punishment and forbid them to go outside. Devonte Hart’s body has never been found.

8 Tree of baby graves

In South Sulawesi, Indonesia, lives an ethnic group called the Toraja who practise animism. They believe that non-human entities including fauna, flora and sometimes inanimate objects possess a ‘spirit.’ The group also practise intricate funeral rites which in itself are occasions for families to gather and the rest of the villagers to participate in these events and reaffirm their commitment to ancient beliefs and traditions.

Some of these funeral events last several days at a time as several ceremonies must be held. Because the average Torajan family would lack the money required to cover funeral costs, it sometimes takes months to years before the ceremonies are held. In the meantime, the deceased is embalmed and kept under the same roof as their family. When they are eventually buried and the ceremonies have been completed, the deceased would be placed in a beautiful coffin and interred in caves or suspended from a cliff.

When a baby dies, they are not buried in the same fashion. Should an infant pass away before they start teething, their remains are wrapped in cloth and placed inside a hollowed-out space in a tree trunk. The gap is covered with palm fibre and sealed. Once the tree begins to heal, it is believed that the child has been absorbed by it.

7 Class photo

At first glance, this photo looks like nothing more than an ordinary American class photo. That is until you realize that the two boys in the upper left-hand corner shooting imaginary guns at the camera is none other than Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold.

A few weeks after this photo was taken at Columbine High School in 1999, Harris and Klebold put an evil plan that they’d been working on for more than a year, into action. The two seniors placed two bombs in the cafeteria as well as in their cars which were parked in the school’s lot. These bombs failed to detonate, but the two boys proceeded to shoot and kill 12 students and 1 teacher. They shot and injured a further 21 people, while 3 others were injured trying to escape the massacre.

Harris and Klebold then committed suicide in the school library.

It was revealed afterwards that the shooters hoped their planned massacre would claim more lives than the Oklahoma City bombing.

6 Ransom photo

On 1 February 2012, 18-year-old Samantha Koenig was kidnapped from her workplace in Anchorage, Alaska. Israel Keyes stole Samantha’s debit card and other valuables, raped her, and then murdered her the following day. Leaving her body in a shed, Keyes set off for New Orleans to join his family as they all set out to the Gulf of Mexico for a two-week cruise.

When the cruise was over, Keyes went back to the shed in Alaska and removed Samantha’s body. He applied makeup to her face and sewed her eyelids open. He then placed a four-day-old newspaper next to her and snapped a photo.

He proceeded to send the photo and a ransom demand of $30 000 to Samantha’s parents. Afterwards, he dismembered her body and dumped the parts in Matanuska Lake.

Samantha’s devastated family paid the ransom amount, while Keyes went around using Samantha’s debit card to make several transactions. He was eventually tracked down and arrested because he was careless with the transactions.

Israel Keyes died by suicide on 2 December 2012 while being held on suspicion of murder.

10 Poignant Photographs From Humanity’s Lowest Moments

5 Picture of home

In 1948 David ‘Chim’ Seymour took a picture with part of the caption reading: “Children’s wounds are not all outward. Those made in the mind by years of sorrow will take years to heal.”

The setting was a school for disturbed children in Warsaw, the subject a young girl of around 8 years old named Tereska. She was busy with a teacher’s assignment that required the students to ‘draw home.’

Tereska didn’t draw a building. Instead she drew a tangle of lines. One hand still on the blackboard, displaying her haunting drawing, Tereska looked at the photographer with anguish in her eyes.

When Tereska was only 4 years old, her father was seized by the Gestapo. Tereska and her teenaged sister fled to their grandmother’s house. Then, their grandmother’s house was attacked, and they had to flee again, the older woman briefly returning to the home to fetch a forgotten item. She never returned: it is presumed she was either shot or died in an ensuing bomb attack. A large piece of shrapnel hit Tereska and she was left brain damaged.

Tereska and her sister Jadzia spent three weeks walking through a war zone before they finally arrived at a village.

Tereska’s mental health steadily declined over the years, and she spent her life in an asylum until her death in 1978.

4 Sword Attack

On 22 October 2015, 21-year-old Anton Lundin Pettersson entered Kronan School in Trollhättan, Sweden. He wore a German WWII helmet, a mask reminiscent of that of Darth Vader and carried a sword.

He attacked 20-year-old TA, Lavin Eskandar with the sword and then stabbed a 15-year-old student Ahmed Hassan in the abdomen. Eskandar died on the scene while Hassan died later in hospital.

Pettersson then wandered the halls and happened upon two oblivious students who posed with him for a photograph, thinking he was part of an early Halloween prank.

Shortly afterwards, 42-year-old teacher Nazir Amso requested that Pettersson remove his mask. Pettersson responded by stabbing the older man. Amso died after spending 6 weeks in hospital.

At this point, police had arrived at the school and they shot Pettersson who died in hospital later. The ensuing investigation revealed that Petterson shouted “I am your father” before attacking his victims.

3 Shell-shocked

The first photographs were taken during the late 1820s, but it took another century for smiles to become the standard expression in them. Before that, grim expressions were the norm, with some modern-day researchers and experts believing that bad teeth could have been one of the reasons for smile-less photos way back when. Another theory says because photographs took so long to take in the 19th century, it was hard for people to hold their smiles long enough.

During the Great War that lasted from 1914 to 1918, there was even less to smile about. Millions of soldiers and civilians lost their lives, and those who survived the war were subjected to PTSD, living their lives with missing limbs and missing loved ones.

In this photograph taken in the trenches during the Battle of Flers-Courcelette in September 1916, the photographer captured not only medical orderlies tending to the wounded inside a trench, he also captured what seemed to be a happy, smiling soldier.

However, looking more closely at the photograph, it is clear to see that the soldier, who is looking directly at the camera, is ‘shell-shocked’ and has had his psyche destroyed by witnessing the death and destruction around him.

The term shell shock was coined by British psychologist Charles Samuel Myers during the war.

2 Trapped in mud

In 1985, disaster struck the small town of Armero, Colombia when a nearby volcano erupted, causing a huge and destructive mud slide. The volcano eruption had been ‘brewing’ since the 1840s and by September 1985 had released such violent tremors that residents in nearby towns became frightened.

Nevado del Ruiz erupted on 13 November 1985, triggering the mud slide. The mud covered at least 85% of Armero, destroying houses, roads and bridges, and trapping residents who tried to flee. Most of the town’s people died; up to 25,000. This meant only a fifth of the population survived. Hours passed before the initial rescue efforts began, leaving scores of people trapped and terrified before their eventual death.

Two days after the disaster, photojournalist Frank Fournier, made his way to Armero intending to take photographs of the rescue effort. Fournier was shocked by the chaos and horrifying screams of people on the brink of death. A farmer approached Fournier and took him to a little girl that had been trapped under her house for three days. Thirteen-year-old Omayra Sánchez Garzón was buried neck-deep in water and debris and rescue workers were working non-stop to free her. Her legs were pinned down by something in the water and by the time Fournier reached her, she was floating in and out of consciousness.

Fournier took a photograph of Omayra, and the young girl asked him to take her to school because she didn’t want to be late for class. Fournier stayed with Omayra while volunteers and rescuers kept trying to save her. At one point she asked them to let her rest and to tell her mother goodbye.
Omayra died 3 hours later.

1 Last effort before disaster

On 4 August 2020, a massive amount of ammonium nitrate that had been stored improperly at the port of Beirut exploded, killing 181 people, injuring at least 6,000 and leaving 300,000 homeless, while causing billions in property damage. The explosion could be heard in Cyprus and felt in Turkey, Syria and Israel and is considered to be one of the most devasting and powerful non-nuclear explosions in history.

In the days after the disaster, a photograph was found on a photographer’s recovered phone. The photographer died in the blast.

The photo shows heroic firefighters desperately trying to break into a Beirut warehouse (Warehouse 12) after reports of a fire. A unit of 10 firefighters was sent with 7 following close behind the three trying to get into the warehouse.

Moments later the warehouse exploded, the blast swallowing up all 10 firefighters.

10 Of The Most Powerful Photographs From The Last Decade

Earlier this year an article made the rounds that listed the most visited locations in the world. The Blue Lagoon in Iceland opened the list at number nine and the number one spot was taken by the Niagara Falls that is located in the US and Canada. The falls are estimated to host at least 30 million tourists every year (barring 2020 of course).

However, sometimes you might just not be in the mood for crowds or sights that have been splashed all over magazine double page spreads several times. Instead, you might just be in the mood to travel to a place where thousands of people don’t gather at one time. A place most people might never even have heard of.

If you want to travel to a destination with a difference for your next vacation break, why not consider one of the hidden gems on this list? The below photographs may just convince you.

10 Photographs With Haunting Backstories

10 Hamilton Pool Preserve, Texas

Referred to as a Texas cenote, Hamilton Pool Preserve is an emerald green natural swimming hole that was created when an underground river collapsed thousands of years ago. A waterfall flows into the pool and it is surrounded by massive slabs of limestone. The pool is part of the Balcones Canyonlands Preserve and has been a protected nature preserve since 1990. While it has been a popular swimming hole for Texas residents and visitors for quite a long time, it remains a hidden gem location in the US, as most tourists seem to prefer the larger and busier destinations.^[1]

9 The Sunken Garden, Australia

Around 40 million years ago the southeast corner of South Australia was submerged under water. Limestone layers were formed on the seabed and it eventually ‘erupted’ from the sea. Over the millennia that passed, water erosion led to the formation of subterranean caves in the now exposed limestone which opened up when their ceilings collapsed. These sinkholes numbered more than 50 in the region.

In 1886, a farmer by the name of James Umpherston bought a piece of land that included one of the sinkholes. He decided to ‘green it up’ by planting it out and called the hole “The Caves.” These days the sinkhole is known as the Umpherston Sinkhole or The Sunken Garden and is a lush green space with a round view to the blue sky above. Those who have visited the garden call it ‘a magical place’ and ‘like something out of a fairy tale.’^[2]

8 Alberto de Agostini National Park, Chile

The Alberto de Agostini National Park in the third largest national park in the whole of Chile. It is only accessible by boat and one of the most remote and unspoiled parts of Patagonia. The park also marks the end of the Andes Mountains as they dip into the ocean surrounding it. Here you will find massive glaciers, the subpolar Magellanic forest, elephant seal colonies, Chilean dolphins and even Andean condors.^[3]

7 Hell’s Gate National Park, Kenya

Don’t let the name put you off: Hell’s Gate National Park is a fantastic holiday destination that includes a spectacular landmark called Fischer’s Tower. The tower is a volcanic plug named after the German explorer Gustav Fischer. Local folklore has it that the tower is in fact a young Masai girl who was instantly turned to stone after turning around to look at the home she was leaving behind, while on her way to the man she was to marry.

Other than the tower, the park is also home to Hell’s Gate Gorge, lions, cheetahs, leopards, vultures, zebra, antelope and more. Fitting, given that the setting for the 1994 film, The Lion King, was based on the look of the park.^[4]

6 Lake Morskie Oko, Poland

Poland is a popular tourist destination amongst history and art lovers because of its medieval architecture and WWII history. Those who travel to this beautiful country can visit the Auschwitz-Birkenau Camps in Oswiecim, the Warsaw Old Market Place, and the stunning Crooked Forest in Gryfino.

If you are looking for something a little more off-the-beaten-track however, Poland is also the location where you will find Morskie Oko or “Eye of the Sea.” Morskie Oko is a lake deep within the Tatra National Park which changes color throughout the year, transforming from a deep blue shade to a light, turquoise color. Surrounding the lake are mountains and Swiss pines, which makes for a picture-perfect holiday setting.^[5]

10 Stories Behind Incredible Pulitzer Prize–Winning Photographs

5 Split Apple Rock, New Zealand

If you’re looking for both quirky and stunning holiday destinations, New Zealand has it all and more. Here you will find the mysterious Moeraki boulders, Teapotland, Stonehenge Aotearoa and the Waitomo Glowworm Caves.

In Tasman Bay, off the northern coast of the South Island of New Zealand, you will find Tokangawh? or Split Apple Rock. Legend has it that millions of years ago, the gods were fighting over a golden apple. In the struggle to grab hold of the fruit, it slipped from their hands, fell from heaven to earth and split open when it landed. It then turned to stone. Another legend has that the gods were fighting over a boulder and their tugging from either end, caused the rock to split.

The rock, which truly does resemble a split apple, in fact split because water that seeped through its cracks froze and then expanded. It squats around 50m into the ocean off the coast of the Tasman sea and is accessible by wading into the water during low tide.^[6]

4 Yakushima Island, Japan

Yakushima is a subtropical island that forms part of the Kagoshima Prefecture. Here you will find some of Japan’s oldest living trees inside a massive cedar forest, some of which are older than 7000 years. Some of the areas on the island have been declared National World Heritage Sites in 1993. The Shiratani Unsui-kyo Ravine is a big draw for the adventurous as it is a beautiful place to hike. Some of the trails can be completed in a single hour while other trails inside the ravine can take up to six hours to complete. It rains almost every day, but that doesn’t take away from the exceptional beauty of the island where you will also find rare plants and animals, including the Yaku monkey.^[7]

3 Floating Church, India

Ruins are always intriguing no matter where you find yourself in the world. In the village of Shettihalli in the Hassan district of Karnataka in India, lie the ruins of the Gothic-style Rosary Church that was built during the 1860s. Each year during the monsoons, between July and October, the church is half-submerged making it look like the structure is floating. The area in which the church stands is very remote so you will have to bring your own food if you want to have a picnic nearby.^[8]

2 Fort St. John the Baptist, Portugal

The Berlengas archipelago is made up of Berlenga Grande, which is the largest island, and two groups of smaller islets; the Estelas Inlets and the Farilhões-Forcados Islets. Only a small number of tourists are allowed here as it has been declared a reservation area for the protection of local fauna.

On Berlenga Grande stands the imposing Fort of the Berlengas, also known as Fort St. John the Baptist. The fort was constructed out of what remained of an old, abandoned monastery and built in the 17th century. In the 1950s it was used as a Pousada (government-owned hotel) and was eventually deserted after the 1974 revolution. Today it makes for an awesome tourist attraction and stunning snapshots.^[9]

1 Naeroyfjord, Norway

Speaking of stunning photographs, if you’re looking for the ultimate ‘Instagramable’ holiday destination, you will not be disappointed with the Naeroyfjord in Norway. The fjord is surrounded by colossal mountains on either side, as well as waterfalls and snowfields. The Naeroyfjord is around twenty kilometres in length and its shallowest point is 12 meters deep. It is an extension of the Sognefjord and is one of the narrowest fjords in Europe: 250 meters wide at its narrowest point.

There is a passenger boat for visitors all year round, as well as charter boats and cruiseships during certain times of the year. The fjord is a Unesco World Heritage site and has unsurprisingly been used as the inspiration for the fictional town of Arendelle in the hugely popular animated film: Frozen.^[10]

10 Calm Photographs With Awful Backstories

History will always fascinate modern generations. It hooks the imagination to read about the heroes and heroines of days gone by, horrific wars, tragedies of great ships that sank and unexpected large-scale disasters. A great many historical novels have been written about infamous events that changed the course of history and of course, even back then, photographs have been taken to document certain moments or people in time. On this list are just some of the most fascinating photographs taken throughout the last 200 years, some of which may be lesser known than others.

10 Photographs With Haunting Backstories

10 The first photo of the Sphinx of Giza

The Great Sphinx of Giza was built more than 4,500 years ago, literally thousands of years before photography was invented in 1826. Since then, hordes of photos of the Great Sphinx and the Pyramids of Giza have been taken by people who came from all the corners of the world to see these majestic monuments for themselves.

As part of what is believed to be the first set of photographs taken of the statue, Maxime du Camp snapped a photo of the Great Sphinx, with the pyramids visible in the background, in 1849. At that point the chest area of the Sphinx had only very recently been uncovered.

Another photograph taken in 1860 revealed that further excavation had uncovered even more of the statue. Today, the entire Sphinx is visible, including its tail that wraps around the rear and stretches to its right rear paw. Only the nose, believed to have been a meter wide, is missing from the statue.^[1]

9 The splendour of a mausoleum

The spectacular Taj Mahal mausoleum was commissioned by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in 1632 to hold the tomb of his wife, Mumtaz Mahal. After Jahan died, his remains too were interred in a tomb inside the mausoleum. This tale took a turn for the gruesome when a myth started making the rounds that said Shah Jahan severed the hands and gouged out the eyes of all the craftsmen and artisans who worked on the Taj Mahal to ensure they couldn’t replicate its beauty anywhere else in the world.

The first-ever photos of the monument were taken by Dr John Murray between 1858 and 1862. The first photograph of the Taj Mahal depicts a side view of the building with the river Yamuna flowing in front of it.^[2]

8 Boating on Yellowstone Lake

The Yellowstone National Park is home to Yellowstone Lake, the largest body of water in the park. Pre-historic times saw Native Americans populate the woods and valleys surrounding the lake, with the first European traveller to find the lake, John Colter, doing so during the 19th century. A fishing bridge was added in 1902, but closed for fishing in 1973 after the rapid decline of cutthroat trout.

In 1871, the first documented boat sailed out on the waters of Yellowstone lake. The Annie was sailed to Stevenson Island on 29 July 1871 and was a small canvas boat measuring 12 feet long. The boat contained passengers: James Stevenson and Henry W. Elliot.^[3]

7 Van Gogh photo controversy

Vincent van Gogh is as famous for his beautiful paintings as he is for cutting off his own ear. The Starry Night, The Yellow House and Cypresses are among his most popular artworks. Van Gogh also created a number of self-portraits, but only had two photographs taken of himself throughout his lifetime.

One of the photographs was presented at an exhibition in 1957, during which Belgian researcher Mark Edo Tralbaut claimed that it depicted a 13-year-old Van Gogh. In 2014, however, a Dutch TV program used imaging technology to age-morph the Van Gogh photo and compared it to the other photo of the artist, taken when he was 19. It was found that the photos didn’t match. The Van Gogh Museum took up the matter and concluded that the 19-year-old was undoubtedly Van Gogh, but couldn’t conclusively prove that the photo of the 13-year-old was indeed the artist. Many experts now believe that instead of the photo depicting a teenaged Van Gogh, it in fact depicted his brother, Theo Van Gogh.^[4]

6 Argiles d’Octeville dinosaur

Dinosaur fossils have fascinated the world’s population for a long time. Books have been written about these giant creatures and movies produced that show them in all their former glory.

In 1898, an excavation in a geological formation in Europe, Argiles d’Octeville, uncovered several bones belonging to a Stegosaur. Amateur geologist, palaeontologist and archaeologist, Emile Savalle, took several photos of the excavation process and it became the oldest surviving photographs of a dinosaur excavation in Europe.

Savalle had found a solid block of Kimmeridgian limestone on the beach. The block contained fossilized bones and, after he notified the Natural History Museum in Le Havre, it was confirmed that the bones belonged to a dinosaur. Savalle died in 1902 and at that time, the skeleton had not yet been identified as being that of a Stegosaur, with it still being described incorrectly as an Iguanodon in 1904. It was only in 1911 that the Octeville bones were first correctly described as belonging to a Stegosaur.^[5]

10 Pictures That Almost Got Their Photographers Killed

5 The smiling hippo

A cute baby hippopotamus was captured on an island in the White Nile and donated to England in return for deerhounds and greyhounds in 1850. Obaysch, named after the island he was found on, arrived in London to the cheers of many excited spectators. His new home, the Zoological Gardens, saw the number of visitors double overnight. Obaysch looked like he was smiling whenever he took a nap, and he was one of the first ‘star’ animals and the first hippo to arrive in Victorian Britain.

Obaysch escaped the zoo at one point and legend has it that a zoo keeper was roped in as ‘bait’ to help lure the hippo back into his enclosure. A second hippo was sent to the zoo in 1854, named Adhela. Obaysch and Adhela produced offspring 16 years later, but tragedy struck when their first two calves died soon after birth. A third calf named Guy Fawkes was born in 1872 and survived.^[6]

4 Table Mountain cableway

Table Mountain in Cape Town, SA has filled visitors with awe and wonder for hundreds of years. In 1790, Lady Anne Barnard became the first Capetonian woman to scale the summit at a time when it could only be done on foot. In 1912, plans for a cableway up the mountain started to take shape. On 4 October 1929 the cableway was officially opened. Since then, over 20 million people have taken a cable car to the top, including Arnold Schwarzenegger and Oprah Winfrey as well as Sir Edmund Hillary and George Lowe.

The very first cable car that made the route up the mountain looked like a wooden box with windows and looking at it today, it doesn’t inspire much confidence in its ability to transport a group of people up the massive Table Mountain.

However, during its long history, the cableway has maintained a 100% safety record with no accidents occurring since its inception.^[7]

3 Into the Jaws of Death

There are a great many photographs that have captured the horror and tragedy of war. Some of these photos depict the bloody aftermath of battles, while others show the psychological effects that the different wars have imprinted on soldiers and their families. Many photographs have been taken during action and reflect not only the terrible conditions the soldiers had to live in, but the terrifying actions they had no choice but to undertake.

On 6 June 1944, Robert F. Sargent took a photograph of American soldiers disembarking from a LCVP at Omaha Beach during WWII. The photo was named “Taxis to Hell – and Back – Into the Jaws of Death” and the original caption read: “American invaders spring from the ramp of a Coast Guard-manned landing barge to wade those last perilous yards to the beach of Normandy. Enemy fire will cut some of them down. Their ‘taxi’ will pull itself off the sands and dash back to Coast Guard-manned transport for more passengers.”

This photograph garnered the reputation of being one of the most famous photos of D-Day. Almost 10 000 soldiers were killed during D-Day. They were buried in the Normandy American Cemetery which is located on a cliff overlooking Omaha Beach. More than 1500 soldiers’ bodies were never recovered.^[8]

2 Balancing on top of the world

If you have a fear of heights, you might not enjoy looking at this photograph.

Acrobats Jarley Smith, Jewell Waddek and Jimmy Kerrigan performed a fearless routine on top of a ledge on the 86th floor of the Empire State Building on 21 August 1934. Nicknamed the ‘Three Jacksons’ the young men showed off an intricate balancing act which culminated in them resembling a human sculpture.^[9]

1 Kangaroos in Egypt

This is truly a unique photo. Not only are the Pyramids of Giza visible behind lines of soldiers, one of the soldiers is hunched in front of a kangaroo of all things.

Kangaroos and other animals were smuggled all over the world during the First and Second World Wars by Australian troops who were proud to be serving Australia. This is how the kangaroo in this photograph made it all the way to Egypt. Some soldiers even smuggled koalas and possums. Many Egyptians were aghast at the sight of the marsupials in their country and deathly afraid of them, until they were informed that kangaroos were harmless unless provoked.^[10]

10 Strange But Interesting Early Photography Fads

For most inmates, imprisonment means being kept in one building for a determined number of months or years. Staring at the walls of a square cell each and every day. Listening to other prisoners scream, shout, fight, and even die. When prisons eventually become abandoned, the memories tend to hang around, permeating the atmosphere and releasing a stark chill in the air.

After viewing these ten images of abandoned prisons, you’ll likely agree.

Related: 10 Ghastly Prison Practices Of The 19th Century

10 Old New Mexico State Penitentiary

Hardcore criminals engaged in two riots in the Old New Mexico State Penitentiary before it moved in 1956. By the ’70s, the prison was severely overcrowded, and a newly instated “snitch system” enraged a large number of prisoners. On February 2 and 3, 1980, the inmates overran the prison building in a terrifying riot during which 12 guards were taken hostage, and 33 inmates were killed by other prisoners. Some of these inmates were tortured before being murdered in revenge for their snitching to prison wardens. The guards’ lives were spared, but seven of them were severely injured after being beaten and raped.

It took 36 hours for the police to regain control of the prison. Part of the building was shut down shortly after, and the inmates were moved to another prison. Today, the Old New Mexico State Penitentiary (Old Main) is mostly abandoned, with some parts used to store movie props. After all the horror, it is not surprising that many who visited the building after it closed reported seeing shadows and hearing unexplained noises emanating from the empty cells.^[1]

9 Sinop Prison

Sinop Prison is one of the oldest prisons in Turkey. It is located within the Sinop Fortress and was established in 1887. In 1939, a building with nine halls spread over two floors was added to hold juvenile prisoners.

Conditions were harsh inside the prison due to its location. By being so close to the sea, the air was always moist and cold, making it difficult to even light a match. Sinop is also well known for holding many intellectuals, including journalists, politicians, teachers, and poets.

The prison was abandoned in 1997, and the inmates moved to a new prison in Sinop. Today the prison is open for sightseeing, with plans in the works to convert the inner fortress into a maritime and justice museum.^[2]

8 Her Majesty’s Prison Pentridge

HM Prison Pentridge was established in 1851 in Coburg, Victoria, with the first prisoners incarcerated the same year. The building was split into several divisions using letters of the alphabet. For instance, A was for long- and short-term prisoners who displayed good behavior, B was for prisoners who displayed bad behavior, G was for psychiatric problems, and so on. By the time the prison shut down in 1997, it housed over 1,000 inmates. Australia’s most infamous criminal, Ned Kelly, was also imprisoned at Pentridge, and his remains were found in a mass grave at the prison in 2009.

While some parts of the abandoned building have been turned into housing developments, some of the old divisions remain and are used as a venue for ghost tours.^[3]

7 Candido Mendes

Ilha Grande is an idyllic island off the coast of Rio de Janeiro that draws thousands of tourists to its white sand beaches and tranquil waters. What some may not know, however, is that the island is also home to an abandoned high-security prison.

In 1886, Lazaretto Hospital opened on the island. The hospital was meant to keep patients with contagious diseases away from the rest of the public. It took only a few years for the wards to become overcrowded and the island to become overpopulated. A small prison was constructed to house troublemakers, and at the same time, Lazaretto morphed into a military prison. During wartime, it closed down and reopened in 1930. In 1942, Lazaretto was renamed Colonia Candido Mendes and was declared a fully functional prison. It was here that dangerous gangs established roots and planned to overthrow the wardens.

Gang violence escalated to the point where police couldn’t maintain control over the prisoners, and the prison was closed down in 1994. But one inmate stayed behind. Julio de Almeida was serving a 28-year sentence for murder, theft, and attempted escape but was released in 1994 for good behavior. He had nowhere to go and chose to stay at the prison, creating a unique home for himself.^[4]

6 Carabanchel Prison

Carabanchel opened in Spain in 1944 and saw its busiest time during the Franco era. Political prisoners built the panopticon-designed building and knew full well that it was inescapable. The prison became known for brutal practices, and few of those imprisoned there left their cells alive. There were rumors of executions, abuse, and torture aimed at unionists, terrorists, and those who identified as gay.

The prison was decommissioned in 1998, and its 2,500 prisoners moved to other prisons. Shortly after, the building was looted, and all doors, railings, and metal were taken. After becoming a shelter for drug addicts, undocumented immigrants, and homeless people, the old prison was eventually torn down in 2008.^[5]

5 Goli Otok Prison

Goli Otok was a political prison built on an uninhabited island in Croatia when the country was part of former Yugoslavia. It operated between 1949 and 1989. The political prisoners held here included Stalinists and just about anyone who exhibited sympathy toward the Soviet Union. Inmates were forced into manual labor regardless of the weather on the island, which sometimes reached temperatures of 40°C (104°F). More than 400 prisoners were murdered, committed suicide, or died because of exposure to the harsh conditions.

When the prison was abandoned in 1989, it was left to rot. These days it serves as housing for shepherds and as a tourist attraction for those looking to find the ghosts of the prison’s turbulent past.^[6]

4 Napier Prison

Napier Hill in New Zealand was the location of the Napier Prison between 1862 and 1993. It is the oldest prison complex in the country and the site of four hangings that occurred during the 19th century. The old prison hanging yard is depicted in this photograph.

The prison building was restored in 2002 and utilized as a backpacker. Currently, it offers the Escape Room Experience and Self-Guided Audio Tours, as well as the opportunity to get yourself locked up in solitary confinement or a padded cell before venturing into the hanging yard and visiting the graveyard.

Napier Prison is still considered to be one of the most haunted places in New Zealand, with many tourists reportedly seeing the ghost of the mass murderer Roland Edwards and experiencing ghostly occurrences such as disembodied faces floating before them and unexplained footsteps sounding in the dark.^[7]

3 West Virginia Penitentiary

The gothic-style West Virginia Penitentiary is still being used as a filming location for scary movies, and it also holds a museum. The prison was in operation between 1876 and 1995 and was constructed by the inmates. There was no rest for the prisoners here as they also had to work in a carpentry shop, paint shop, stone yard, blacksmith, bakery, and even a hospital within the prison grounds to help sustain the prison. The prison also received revenue from its very own farm and coal mine, which ended up saving the state around $14,000 a year.

While conditions were fair initially, it deteriorated to the extent that it became one of the most violent prisons in the U.S. A “designated” room within the prison known as “The Sugar Shack” was used for raping inmates, fighting, and gambling. In total, 36 murders took place within the walls of the prison. In 1983, Charles Manson filed a request to be moved to the West Virginia Penitentiary to be closer to his family. This request was denied.

At the end of its lifespan, the prison was overrun with riots and escapes. By the time it was abandoned, 94 executions had been carried out, adding to the ominous atmosphere inside the prison. Visitors can experience the prison cells for themselves during a guided visit and even stay overnight—should they wish to do so.^[8]

2 Holmesburg Prison

The Terrordome, as the Holmesburg Prison in Philadelphia was known, was decommissioned in 1995. During its heyday, however, it was the site of controversial pharmaceutical, biochemical, and dermatological testing on inmates. In 1938, 23 prisoners embarked on a hunger strike and were placed in an isolation cell. The cell, known as the Klondike, reached temperatures of nearly 93.3°C (200°F) because of radiators and steam pipes, which led to the deaths of four prisoners who were basically boiled alive.

In addition, there were several riots in the prison in the 1970s. In one instance, 100 prisoners armed with knives and table legs destroyed the dining hall and attacked their fellow inmates and guards. It is believed by many that poltergeists now inhabit the building and that the ghosts of dead inmates charge at you when you’re not paying attention while inside.^[9]

1 Garcia Moreno Prison

In its more than 140-year history, the Garcia Moreno Prison in Ecuador held both petty thieves as well as politicians and ex-presidents. It is also the place where a jealous prisoner strangled his wife to death in front of their two children. The prison was abandoned in 2014 when its 2,600 inmates were moved to other prisons. Garcia Moreno was designed to hold only 300 inmates, so to say it was grossly overcrowded is a massive understatement.

The prison is now a tourist attraction, its creepy murals and messages left behind by the inmates, open for all to see.^[10]