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16 Of The Most Powerful Photos Ever Taken in History

By Andrew Alpin, 13 November 2017

12Aftermath of Cyclone Nargis

This is a photo of 29 year old Hhaing The Yu holding his face in his hands and helpless at the rain falling over his damaged home in Yangon (Rangoon) the capital of Myanmar after Cyclone Nargis devastated Southern Myanmar in May 2008. It obliterated thousands of thatched hut homes and killed more than 100,000 people.

Aftermath of Cyclone Nargis

13Zanjeer’s last farewell

Why should only humans be part of the most powerful pictures? This is as powerful a photo as any. It is a photograph of the funeral of Zanjeer the sniffer Labrador who saved thousands of lives during the serial bomb blasts that shook Mumbai India in Mach 1993. The dog detected more than 600 detonators, 3,329 kgs of RDX, 249 hand grenades and 6406 rounds of live ammunition. Zanjeer was buried with full police honors in 2000.

Funeral of Zanjeer the sniffer Labrador who saved thousands of lives

14Don’t leave me Daddy

This is another powerful photo of the tragedy of war as it leaves families scared and anguished at the thought of sons, brothers, lover’s fathers and husbands off to war with the probability that they may never see them again. This classic photo was taken by Claude P. Dettloff in New Westminster, Canada, on October 1, 1940.

This classic powerful photo was taken by Claude P Dettloff in New Westminster in Canada on October 1st 1940

15Terri Gurrola reunites with her daughter

Terri Gurrola a military doctor was deployed in Iraq for a year and thought her three year old daughter Gaby would have forgotten her. But that wasn’t so because when she got off the flight back home to Atlanta, she heard Gaby calling her name after she was greeted by an officer. In her own words.

“I was crying tears of joy for the fact that Gaby hadn’t forgotten me. When I finally came up for air, I saw that every single person in that airport was crying, too. Men, women – I kid you not: they were all just bawling.”

Terri Gurrola reunites with her daughter

16The Shocking Symbol of Inhumanity in the Modern World

Although this seems heart-wrenching and cruel to bring it up time and again, still the little frail body of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi drowned and washed up on a beach off the Mediterranean Sea is the stark reminder not just of the refugee crisis but of the inhumanity that haunts our planet. The photo was taken on 2^nd September 2015 by journalist Nilufer Demir. It went viral across the world and forced governments to respond to the crisis. This photo could well be said to be the most powerful photograph in recent history reminding us of how we are enslaved by our own human failings, our rigidity, and restrictions.

Aylan Kurdi