The famous photographs that changed the world
From the political to the environmental, photography immortalises the transient and harnesses an unparalleled power to haunt eternal, inform change and trigger debate the world over.
In celebration of the new Photography Centre at the V&A, opening this October, we unpick the stories of 10 of the most famous photographs that have changed the world.
That face. Those haunting eyes. That penetrating gaze.
Steve McCurry's photograph of The Afghan Girl has become the most recognised photograph in the history of the National Geographic magazine. Taken during the Afghan War in 1985, this photograph captivated the imagination of millions of people around the world, and, above all, spotlit the devastating plight of refugee children in war-torn Afghanistan.
McCurry's raw documentary-style images revealed that, in the face of adversity, life marched on. Despite the flooding, food shortages, and unsanitary conditions in the temporary refugee camps along the Afghan-Pakistan border in 1985, girls laughed, played, and asked to be photographed. McCurry first saw The Afghan Girl during a fleeting visit to her school tent in Peshawar; he did not know here name or her story, but knew that her penetrating gaze would change public foucs on the crisis. Seventeen years later, McCurry wanted to discover the identity of the twelve-year old girl, whom we now know is Sharbat Gula.
