13 Foto Yang Merubah Dunia

1. The Photograph That Raised the Photojournalistic Stakes:
"Omaha Beach, Normandy, France"
Robert Capa, 1944

" Jika hasil gambar dari kamera anda tidak cukup baik, " ada baiknya anda menyimak ucapan dari fotografer perang Robert Capa yang mengatakan, " Anda tidak cukup dekat. " Ucapan yang mungkin akan mendekatkannya pada kematian, namun jika anda melihat foto hasil karyanya, paling tidak Robert Capa tahu pasti dengan apa yang diucapkannya. Terlebih setelah semua pengalamannya sebagai juru foto dalam perang dunia ke II. Gambar bidikan dari Cappa yang paling terkenal diambil pada pagi hari yang terkenal dengan sebutan D-Day, 6 Juni 1944, ketika ia mendarat bersama gelombang pertama pasukan infanteri AS di Pantai Omaha.

Dibawah dentuman mortar dan desingan peluru, Robert Capa sembari berlindung mencoba membidik sebisa mungkin momen yang disaksikannya dengan semua film yang tersimpan dalam kameranya. Dari empat rol film, Capa merekam hampir semua momen mengerikan dari pertempuran D-Day , tapi 11 diiantaranya terpapar eksposur yang berlebihan akibat asisten laboratorium fotonya yang terburu-buru saat mencetak foto-foto itu karena mengejar tenggat waktu dari majalah Life tempatnya mengirimkan foto-foto tersebut.

Tapi siapa sangka jika ternyata kesalahan yang dibuatnya akan menjadi sebuah teknik baru dalam dunia fotografi yang belum pernah digunakan, yang disebut teknik surreal ( sebuah gambar yang hasilnya sedikit terlihat kurang focus ). Lebih dari 50 tahun kemudian, sutradara Steven Spielberg mencoba untuk mereproduksi tampilan yang "dianggap sebuah kesalahan tersebut " untuk menampilkan semua kejadian mengerikan saat D-day dan difilmkan dalam film karya sutradara terkenal ini " Saving Private Ryan " .

The Photograph That Gave a Face to the Great Depression
"Migrant Mother"
Dorothea Lange, 1936

Disaat fotografi sebagai sebuah seni dan sebuah cerminan dari kehidupan sosial manusia, mulai dipandang sebelah mata oleh sebagian orang, Foto yang berjudul " Migrant Mother" ini cukup menyentak hati sebagian orang di masa itu. Bagi banyak orang, Florence Owens Thompson adalah wajah dari Depresi Besar bangsa Amerika yang sedang mengalami reses ekonomi waktu itu. Dorothea Lange mengambil gambar tersebut saat mengunjungi sebuah kamp bagi para pemetik kacang di California pada Februari 1936, Sebuah foto yang mampu membangkitkan semangat banyak orang dari keputus asaan akibat kehancuran ekonomi Amerika Serikat di masa paling suram tersebut.

Wanita dalam foto tersebut,Thompson, adalah seorang ibu dari tujuh anak yang kehilangan suaminya akibat penyakit TBC. Terdampar di sebuah peternakan buruh migran di Nipomo, California. Dia dan anak-anaknya mengisi perut dengan berburu burung di sekitar kamp dan sayuran yang diambil dari lapangan di dekatnya. Seuah potret buram yang mewakili hampir 2.500 pekerja lain di sana. Dampak foto itu mengejutkan. Direproduksi di koran di mana-mana, wajah angker Thompson memicu kecaman publik langsung, dan secara cepat mendorong politisi dari Administrasi Pemukiman federal untuk mengirim makanan dan persediaan. Sayangnya, ternyata, Thompson dan keluarganya sudah pindah, dan meninggalkan sekelumit kisah penderitaan yang dihadapinya bersama ketujuh anaknya. Bahkan, kala itu tidak ada yang tahu identitas wanita difoto sampai kemudian Thompson mengungkapkan identitasnya beberapa tahun kemudian di sebuah artikel surat kabar pada tahun 1976.

The Photograph That Brought the Battlefield Home
"Federal Dead on the Field of Battle of First Day, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania"
Mathew Brady, 1863

Sebagai salah satu fotografer pertama di dunia perang, Mathew Brady tidak memulai karier profesionalnya seperti yang Anda bayangkan. Dia adalah salah satu fotografer yang cukup disegani, Brady dikenal dengan potret tentang orang terkenal seperti Abraham Lincoln dan Robert E. Lee. Dengan kata lain, dia bukanlah fotografer amatiran.

Bahkan, Brady telah memiliki dari karir, uang, bisnis, dan kemewahan dalam kehidupan pribadinya. Namun demikian, ia memutuskan untuk mengambil risiko dan meninggalkan semuanya untuk bergabung dengan tentara Union ke dalam pertempuran dengan kamera, dan berkata, " A spirit in my feet said, ‘Go!, "

Setelah lolos dari maut pada Pertempuran pertama di Bull Run, Brady mulai mempekerjakan asisten untuk membantunya menangkap kejadian penting dalam perang saudara Amerika tersebut dengan kameranya. Dan dalam rentang hanya beberapa tahun, Brady dan timnya membidik lebih dari 7.000 foto ,sebuah angka yang luar biasa jika mengetahui bahwa dia harus membawa gerobak kuda penuh peralatan rumit dan bahan kimia berbahaya untuk bisa mengambil dan mengolah foto di jaman itu.

Lewat peralatan sederhana, keberanian dan kerja kerasnya, paling tidak mampu membuka mata banyak orang akan sisi suram dan muram dari sebuah peperangan satu bangsa yang seharusnya tidak perlu terjadi.

The Photograph That Ended a War But Ruined a Life
"Murder of a Vietcong by Saigon Police Chief"
Eddie Adams, 1968

Wartawan foto AP, Eddie Adams pernah menulis " foto-foto adalah senjata yang paling kuat di dunia, ". Sebuah kutipan cocok untuk Adams, karena 1968 fotonya yang menggambarkan kekejaman seorang perwira Vietnam selatan yang menembak kepala seorang tahanan yang terborgol dari jarak dekat, membuatnya mendapatkan Hadiah Pulitzer pada tahun 1969, tetapi juga merubah pandangan sebagian besar warga dunia tentang Perang di Vietnam. Dampak politis yang ditimbulkan dari gambar tersebut sungguh luar biasa, meskipun, situasi di sana tidaklah selalu hitam -putih seperti apa yang digambarkan.

Foto Adams sendiri tidak mengungkapkan jika motif dari penembakan yang dilakukan oleh seorang kapten tersebut adalah sebuah "tindakan balas dendam " terhadap Vietkong yang sebelumnya mengeksekusi puluhan warga sipil tidak bersenjata pada hari yang sama. Apapun, itu langsung menjadi semacam simbol dan ikon dari kekejaman perang .Sayangnya, warisan foto itu akanmelekat dan menghantui sisa hidup Adams.

Setelah perang, ia dicerca di mana pun ia pergi. Di Australia dia pernah ditolak untuk tinggal dan menetap, ia kemudian dipindahkan ke Amerika Serikat, di mana ia menghadapi demonstrasi besar-besaran (meskipun gagal) yang meminta pemerintah AS untuk mendeportasinya. Adams akhirnya menetap di Virginia dan membuka sebuah restoran namun terpaksa menutupnya ketika di tembok retorannya tertulis nada ancaman dan ungkapan "kita tahu siapa Anda "

Adams merasa begitu tertekan dan menyesal dengan semua yang diwariskan dari foto yang menurutnya diambil tanpa sengaja itu, bahkan dia berucap, " Seorang perwira membunuh Vietcong dengan pistolnya, dan saya membunuh publik dengan kamera saya. "

The Photograph That Isn’t as Romantic as You Might Think
"V-J Day, Times Square, 1945", a.k.a. "The Kiss"
Alfred Eisenstaedt, 1945

Pada tanggal 14 Agustus 1945, berita tentang menyerahnya Jepang diumumkan di Amerika Serikat, menandakan akhir Perang Dunia II. Perayaan besar memenuhi jalanan di hampir semua kota di Amerika, tapi mungkin tidak ada yang lebih lega dibandingkan dengan para prajurit dan pelaut yang terlibat langsung dalam perang. Banyak dari mereka baru saja pulang dari pertempuran-pertempuran di Eropa.

Di antara massa gembira berkumpul di Times Square hari itu adalah salah satu jurnalis foto paling berbakat abad ke-20, seorang imigran Jerman bernama Alfred Eisenstaedt. Saat memotret momen-momen yang ada di perayaan, ia melihat seorang pelaut  berjalan di sepanjang jalanan sembari  “menyambar” setiap  gadis yang terlihat. " Dia kemudian menjelaskan bahwa, " apakah ia seorang nenek, gemuk, kurus, tua, itu tidak ada bedanya. " , tetapi ketika dirinya terekam dalam sebuah adegan foto dengan seorang suster di jalanan New York, dan gambar itu beredar di koran-koran di seluruh negeri, banyak yang mengira bahwa ciuman itu dilakukan oleh sepasang kekasih yang telah lama berpisah, dan itu salah…,karena foto itu hanyalah ungkapan selebrasi seorang pelaut atas berakhirnya perang.  Banyak kritkus yang mengkritik kualitas dari foto tersebut, namun demikian, paling tidak, foto tersebut  mampu menjadi simbol abadi kegembiraan bagi warga Amerika setelah melewati perjuangan dan peperangan yang panjang dan menyakitkan.

 The Photograph That Saved the Planet
"The Tetons – Snake River"
Ansel Adams, 1942

Some claim photography can be divided into two eras: Before Adams and After Adams. In Times B.A., for instance, photography wasn’t widely considered an art form. Rather, photographers attempted to make their pictures more "artistic" (i.e., more like paintings) by subjecting their exposures to all sorts of extreme manipulations, from coating their lenses with petroleum jelly to scratching the surfaces of their negatives with needles. Then came Ansel Adams, helping shutterbugs everywhere get over their collective inferiority complex.

Brashly declaring photography to be "a blazing poetry of the real," Adams eschewed manipulations, claiming they were simply derivative of other art forms. Instead, he preached the value of "pure photography." In an era when handheld point-and-shoot cameras were quickly becoming the norm, Adams and other landscape photographers clung to their bulky, old-fashioned large-format cameras. Ultimately, Adams’ pictures turned photography into fine art. What’s more, they shaped the way Americans thought of their nation’s wilderness and, with that, how to preserve it.

Adams’ passion for the land wasn’t limited to vistas he framed through the lens. In 1936, he accompanied his photos to Washington to lobby for the preservation of the Kings Canyon area in California. Sure enough, he was successful, and it was declared a national park.

8. The Photograph That Kept Che Alive
"The Corpse of Che Guevara"
Freddy Alborta, 1967

Sociopathic thug? Socialist luminary? Or as existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre called him, "the most complete human being of our age"? Whatever you believe, there’s no denying that Ernesto "Che" Guevara has become the patron saint of revolutionaries. Undeniably, he is a man of mythical status – a reputation that persists less because of how he lived than because of how he died.

Unenthused by his efforts to incite revolution among the poor and oppressed in Bolivia, the nation’s army (trained and equipped by the U.S. military and the CIA) captured and executed Guevara in 1967. But before dumping his body in a secret grave, they gathered around for a strategic photo op. They wanted to prove to the world that Che was dead, in hopes that his political movement would die with him. in fact, anticipating charges that the photo had been faked, Che’s thoughtful captors amputated his hands and preserved them in formaldehyde.

But by killing the man, Bolivian officials unwittingly birthed his legend. The photo, which circulated around the world, bore a striking resemblance to Renaissance paintings of Christ taken down from the cross. Even as Che’s killers preened and gloated above him (the officer on the right seems to be inadvertently pointing to a wound on Guevara’s body near where Christ’s final wound was inflicted), Che’s eerily peaceful face was described as showing forgiveness. The photo’s allegorical significance certainly wasn’t lost on the revolutionary protesters of the era. They quickly adopted "Che lives!" as a slogan and rallying cry. Thanks to this photograph, "the passion of the Che" ensured that he would live on forever as a martyr for the socialist cause.

9. The Photograph that Allowed Geniuses to Have a Sense of Humor
"Einstein with his Tongue Out"
Arthur Sasse, 1951

Arthur Sasse/AFP-Getty Images

You may appreciate this memorable portrait as much as the next fellow, but it’s still fair to wonder: "Did it really change history?" Rest assured, we think it did. While Einstein certainly changed history with his contributions to nuclear physics and quantum mechanics, this photo changed the way history looked at Einstein. By humanizing a man known chiefly for his brilliance, this image is the reason Einstein’s name has become synonymous not only with "genius," but also with "wacky genius."

So why the history-making tongue? It seems Professor Einstein, hoping to enjoy his 72nd birthday in peace, was stuck on the Princeton campus enduring incessant hounding by the press. Upon being prodded to smile for the camera for what seemed like the millionth time, he gave photographer Arthur Sasse a good look at his uvula instead. This being no ordinary tongue, the resulting photo became an instant classic, thus ensuring that the distinguished Novel Prize-winner would be remembered as much for his personality as for his brain.

10. The Photograph That Made the Surreal Real
"Dalí Atomicus"
Philippe Halsman, 1948

Philippe Halsman / Estate of Philippe Halsman

Philippe Halsman is quite possibly the only photographer to have made a career out of taking portraits of people jumping. But he claimed the act of leaping revealed his subjects’ true selves, and looking at his most famous jump, "Dalí Atomicus," it’s pretty hard to disagree.

The photograph is Halsman’s homage both to the new atomic age (prompted by physicist’ then-recent announcement that all matter hangs in a constant state of suspension) and to Dalí’s surrealist masterpiece "Leda Atomica" (seen on the right, behind the cats, and unfinished at the time). It took six hours, 28 jumps, and a roomful of assistants throwing angry cats and buckets of water into the air to get the perfect exposure.

But before settling on the "Atomicus" we know today, Halsman rejected a number of other concepts for the shot. One was the idea of throwing milk instead of water, but that was abandoned for fear that viewers, fresh from the privations of World War II, would condemn it as a waste of milk. Another involved exploding a cat in order to capture it "in suspension," though that arguably would have been a waste of cats.

Halsman’s methods were as unique as they were effective. His celebrity "jump" portraits appeared on at least seven Life magazine covers and helped usher in a new – and radically more adventurous – era of portrait photography.

11. The Photograph That Lied
"Loch Ness Monster" a.k.a. "The Surgeon’s Photo"
Ian Wetherell, 1934

While strange sightings around Scotland’s murky Loch Ness date back to 565 C.E., it wasn’t until photography reached the Loch that Nessie Fever really took off. The now-legendary (and legendarily blurry) "surgeon’s photo," reportedly taken in April of 1934, fueled decades of frenzied speculation, several costly underwater searches, and a local tourism industry that rakes in several million dollars each year.

But the party almost ended in 1994, when a report was published saying that model-maker Christian Spurling admitted to faking the photo. According to Spurling’s statement, his stepfather, Marmaduke Wetherell, worked as a big game hunter and had been hired by London’s Daily Mail to find the beast. But rather than smoke out the creature, he decided to fake it. Wetherell, joined by Spurling and his son, Ian, built their own monster to float on the lake’s surface using a toy submarine and some wood putty. Ian actually took the photo, but to lend more credibility to the story, they convinced an upstanding pillar of the community – surgeon Robert Kenneth Wilson – to claim it as his own. Just goes to prove the old adage, "The camera never lies." People, on the other hand, do.

12. The Photograph That Almost Wasn’t
"Gandhi at his Spinning Wheel"
Margaret Bourke-White, 1946

"Gandhi at his Spinning Wheel," the defining portrait of one of the 20th century’s most influential figures, almost didn’t happen, thanks to the Mahatma’s strict demands. Granted a rare opportunity to photograph India’s leader; Life staffer Margaret Bourke-White was all set to shoot when Gandhi’s secretaries stopped her cold: If she was going to photograph Gandhi at the spinning wheel (a symbol for India’s struggle for independence), she first had to learn to use one herself.

But that wasn’t all. The ascetic Mahatma wasn’t to be spoken to (it being his day of silence.) And because he detested bright light, Bourke-White was only allowed to use three flashbulbs. Having cleared all these hurdles, however, there was still one more – the humid Indian weather, which wreaked havoc on her camera equipment. When time finally came to shoot, Bourke-White’s first flashbulb failed. And while the second one worked, she forgot to pull the slide, rendering it blank.

She thought it was all over, but luckily, the third attempt was successful. In the end, she came away with an image that became Gandhi’s most enduring representation. it was also among the last portraits of his life; he was assassinated less than two years later.

13. The Photograph That Foreshadowed the Future
"Le Violon d’Ingres"
Man Ray, 1924

Before there was photoshop, there was Man Ray. One of the world’s most original photographers, Ray was tireless experimenter. In fact, his work was so inventive that he eventually left the camera behind altogether, creating his surreal "Rayographs" entirely in the darkroom.

"Le Violon d’Ingres" is perhaps his best-known photograph, and one of his earliest. Like many pieces from the Dada movement (which Ray is credited with bringing to the United States), it’s a visual pun. By drawing f-holes on his model’s back, he points out the similarities between the body of a woman and the body of a violin. But it’s a literal pun, as well. Both the model’s dress and pose echo a famous painting by French artist Jean-Auguste-Dominiqe Ingres, whose hobbies were depicting female nudes and playing the violin.

More than just highbrow it, however, Ray’s work was far ahead of its time. By ridiculing a now-obsolete concept – the photographic image as literal interpretation of reality – his pictures foreshadowed our own digital revolution.