The World’s Best Photographs
A Short Video on ‘the world’s best photographs’.
What do you think?
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32 Responses to “The World’s Best Photographs” - Add Yours
August 31st, 2012 at 6:44 am
Wow ! Darren, these are awesome , they are just great , so touching. I mean I am lacking words to describe.
August 31st, 2012 at 7:09 am
I completely disagree that this video reflects the “world’s best photographs”. I think it merely reflects the world’s best photojournalism. A photo isn’t the greatest just because it is the most heart wrenching. Sure, these photos are all very powerful but I wouldn’t even consider putting any of them on my wall.
There are many disciplines of photography and each and every one of them has amazing work, from landscape to fashion to sports to journalism and beyond. Trying to quantify one discipline as the sole holder of the best work suggests that any photographer not shooting catastrophe has no hope of ever getting a truly great photo. Which is completely untrue.
August 31st, 2012 at 7:10 am
Thought the video for the world’s best photographs was way too quick. Didn’t give enough time to read the subtitles.
August 31st, 2012 at 7:19 am
How come that these “powerfull” pictures mostly cover human stupidity? The rallying behind an ideology – a casus belli is mostly that – stupid…. the last picture is really powerfull, though. Soldiers ain’t.
August 31st, 2012 at 7:41 am
The title is actually The World’s Most POWERFUL Photographs.
August 31st, 2012 at 7:41 am
Hmmm The Worlds best some stirring images maybe, but there are so many that I would say are POWERFUL & therefore perhaps amongst the worlds best!!
I recall the execution of a man on the street in Vietnam & the self immolation of Monks acting in protest Wow loike them or not they were powerful images.
August 31st, 2012 at 8:14 am
For those interested in this topic.. There is a book called “Photos That Changed the World” by Prestel that has may of the iconic images thought to be iconic of their era. Again, photo-journalistic in nature, but provides the connecting insight to the images.
August 31st, 2012 at 8:22 am
Agree with Ryan on this one! ^^^^^
August 31st, 2012 at 9:16 am
Thought provoking; some I’ve not seen before – thought they would have been the usual suspects, but no. Most powerful, not world’s best, is the header – all in the eye of the beholder I suppose.
Good to see stimulating images. Makes me want to go deeper into proper reportage.
August 31st, 2012 at 9:48 am
certainly very powerful photographs. the best is debatable. a photograph is much more than heart wrenching, but if it powerful, has it not succeeded as a visual art?
however i think the video’s title of “powerful” is more accurate than the dps article author’s title change of “best”
August 31st, 2012 at 9:49 am
I agree with Ryan. Not much more I can add there.
On a side note, if someone is going to put together something like this, at least leave the photo up long enough to read the caption. These flew by so fast, and even though I can read fast, I’m not a speed reader.
August 31st, 2012 at 9:54 am
Those fabulous pictures were so powerful that I was distracted because they flashed by too fast. I only “heard” 10% of what was said because I was trying to take in the photo. Less is often more!
August 31st, 2012 at 10:11 am
I completely disagree too! You cannot compare these photos to macrophotography and landscapes. They are completely and totally different and you cannot choose which is the best over the other. It’s like saying rock n’ roll is the best music over other genre. This more of a self preference. They are good photos, yes. But saying it the worlds best? No. It’s just your opinion.
August 31st, 2012 at 10:34 am
The video is way to fast, no way to take in the photo and read the captions.
From what little I was able to read and see, these photos represent powerful moments. I think the photos were great, but they were definitely made greater by their familiar subjects in our history.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lendog64/
August 31st, 2012 at 1:53 pm
What do I think? I think they didn’t give enough time to each photo. I didn’t have enough time to read the captions, let alone look at the photo after reading it.
August 31st, 2012 at 2:13 pm
The images in the video are certainly powerful and I enjoyed looking at them. The video however was not so impressive. As many others have noted the images went by too quickly to both read the caption and really look at the photo. I could have done without the narration altogether, hackneyed sentimental stuff that really didn’t say anything at all. But to me the worst thing about this video was that although they were careful to credit the creator of the music, not one single image was credited to its photographer. What a shame.
August 31st, 2012 at 2:43 pm
Best? No. Some of the most powerful? Definitely. Unlike some others, I especially like the photos of the soldiers who have sacrificed so much for our freedom, and the photo of the French man that lost his to the Nazis during WWII. I bet he was grateful to the soldiers of the US Army for liberating the French from the Nazis!
I also echo the comment that the video plays too fast to read the captions.
Jim
September 3rd, 2012 at 11:32 am
Wow…
http://365canvas.blogspot.com/
September 4th, 2012 at 5:36 pm
Yes. This are The World’s Best Photographs.
There are thousands of macro and landscape photographs. And everybody is going to forget about them tomorrow, because tomorrow will be more of them. But photographs in this video are lifetime photographs, no meter what quality they are. They are going to be saved in best world’s archives.
September 7th, 2012 at 2:00 am
@Bela please keep your hate remarks to yourself or don’t post. Why do stupid people always have to hate what they don’t understand??????
I thought the video should have went a little slower also, but still it was very powerful!
September 7th, 2012 at 2:17 am
The reason those are powerful photos is because the phtoographers were masters of their craft- they knew how to compose their photos in such a ay as to draw the viewer in, they studied geometry and composition and used proven techniques that have stood the test of time- I noted some photos by frank cappra (sp?) i nthere I think and Cappra definately knew his craft inside and out and used dynamic lines and diagonals to expertly construct and compose his photos and the resutls speak for themselves- Yes, it’s true the subject matter was powerful on it’s own, however, the power was definately enhanced by skillful composition which elevate3d the photos way above mere snapshots-
Henri Cartier Bresson used to take a long time just to get the right angles and geometry set in the viewfinder BEFORE ever clickign hte shutter- or ‘bangign hte shutter’ as he used to say- He would get the shot set up, then wait ;patiently for someoen or somethign to enter the scene at just the right key points and then BANG- he’d snap the shutteer button- His photos for hte mopst part were expertlyt crafted and composed and uswed time tested geometric base3d compositions that distributed the various swubject matter in a pleasing arrangement throughout hte photos- The photos above are not simply snapshots- they are well crafted and expertly seen by the masters of photography who studied their art and excelled in their fields for a reason
September 7th, 2012 at 2:25 am
and oen more point- most of these photos were photojournalistic in nature- meanign that the photographer had to snap them on the fly, which makes their compositions even that much more impressive- they didn’t have time like Bresson did to precompose- they had to think quickly, see quickly, and arrange their cameras so that the photos still complied with known and probven composition techniques and angles and diagonals and horizontals and verticals=- and stil lthey managed to compose their shots correctly- perhaps not as perfectly or as expertly as Bresson did- but still preetty impressive considerign hte instant nature of the photography- andf they most likely didn’t have speedy ‘multi-frames per second’ shooters like we have today so they couldn’t peruse 10′s of photos, all shot within a few seconds, looking for just the right poses and compositions-
So, while these might not be ‘the best’ photos in the world- they are still VERY impressive and showcase the photographer’s considerable skill about as good as it gets-
September 7th, 2012 at 2:44 am
Ryan said
[[Trying to quantify one discipline as the sole holder of the best work suggests that any photographer not shooting catastrophe has no hope of ever getting a truly great photo]]
Sure they do- Henri Cartier Bresson didn’t shoot tragedy or catastrophy- and his work is still very powerful for the reasons I mentioned in my first post- Fraqnk Cappa shot some very iconic photos that had nothign to do with catastrophy- Along with considerable skill- the great photographersw had an inate sense of what would stir the viewer and what would stick with hte viewer- Hacks simply go for ‘the shocking’ hoping hteir disgusting photos will ‘stick i nthe minds of the viewers’ but it’s juyst a cheap trick because they lack the skill needed to shoot truly great photographs- A greast photogrtapher can tell a horror story without needign to resort to the cheap tricks of showingt graphic violence, blood guts and decapitations and such- they know that less is more, and that gettign the viewer involved by lettign the viewer mentally fill i nthe blanks is aq much much more effective means of conveyign a message than simply laying everythign out and showing everything- Writers know this too- they give the reader just enough info to get the reader inviolved i nthe story without havign to spell everythign otu to the reader- they let the reader get invovled i nthe story too- photographers who are skilled see these thigns and quickly compose to capture that essence- and that’s what makes for great photos
The photos above are powerful, but they also tell a story without actually showing the violence- like the man standign in front of the tank- if a viewer didn’t already know what actually happeend there would be that mystery there- not knowing what happened next- gettign the viewer invovled i nthe photo- like the photo of the man being executed by the soldier- if hte viewer didn’t know what happened next, they get invovled i nthe story wodnerign if the soldeir is simply tryign to scare the bejeebers out of the renegade, or if he actually ended up shootign the renegade- I guess what I’m tryign to say is great photos are taken by great photographers whop knew their craft so well that they could isntantly compose their photos in such a way as to add to the mystery and story of the photo- They had aq keen eye for mystery and emotion- There are many wonderful landscape photographers who’s photos will stand the test of time because they include more than just snapshots- they include atmosphere, intrigue and emotion because the pghotographers expertly composed specifically for these effects-
Sorry for rambling, but as ophotographers I think we need to really and seriously study our craft to hone the skills that took the great masters a lifetime to aquire- folks like Henri Cartier Bresson never stopped studying their craft- never swtopped studying things like composition, light, angles, etc, and the results really showcase their incredible efforts-
September 7th, 2012 at 4:31 pm
It’s worth remembering everyday. We can all CHOOSE to make the world a better place in small and big ways.
September 7th, 2012 at 5:42 pm
Just to do justice to Darren’s title, “World’s best photographs”, I guess his observation on when, how, by whom these very rare historical/war photos were captured influenced him and myself, too, to put such a label. Best in that sense, I guess…but not in any way, best as in perfect conformity to photography rules on lighting, composition, background, aperture, speed, etc. Kudos to you, Darren, for the very nice effort.
September 7th, 2012 at 5:50 pm
I think these photographs represent “iconic content” rather that “worlds best photographs”
Very often people confuse content with quality. You just have to glance through photography magazines to realise this – they are full of cliche photographs of iconic places. Rarely do you see a great photograph from someones back yard in these magazines. I realise they have to be aspirational, but more often than not they focus on the content and historical context rather than the photograph.
The slideshow here is also way too quick to assess the photographs !!
September 7th, 2012 at 8:07 pm
This was very well put together and was completely moving. I was very angry at the first string of comments and very happy to see the turn at the end.
Great post Darren.
Slower would have been better.
September 7th, 2012 at 10:07 pm
Powerful photos indeed … it missed one of my favourites: Dorethea Lange’s ‘Migrant Mother’ …. it has a good shot of my CFA brothers though bonus points for that!
September 10th, 2012 at 7:12 am
I agree with Ryan – while these are (perhaps, but likely not) the ‘best’ photojournalism, not necessarily the best photos. And some were not ‘masters of their craft’ – read Caro’s recent LBJ book on how the famous Johnson swearing in photo was taken.
This is not to diminish the work, it’s all memorable. But there are many other non-photojournalistic shots that are striking, meaningful and/or beautiful. Visit the photography section of a top notch art museum, if you haven’t already.
Finally, whatever happened to actually crediting the photographers? The rather mundane music gets a credit, but not the photogs we’re allegedly praising.
September 12th, 2012 at 9:00 am
I loved it ! The music and images are powerful .Another great book i have is “Moments “- The pulitzer prize winning photographs A Visual Chronicle of Our Time ,by Hal Buell
October 6th, 2012 at 9:03 pm
Very moving video. Definitely no words needed to convey the emotions in those photos. Brought tears to my eyes.
December 10th, 2012 at 1:37 am
These were some great photos. As far as the many comments about the title and speed, etc. ? Maybe some people need to get a life !
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