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.
One Thursday afternoon in 1954 – following a morning shift at St. Mary’s Hospital, a train journey from London to Oxford and an extended lunch with friends – neurologist and amateur middle-distance runner Roger Bannister unexpectedly made sporting history: the athlete ran the first ever sub-four-minute mile. Despite his phenomenal achievement, Bannister retired from the track later that year to pursue a career in medicine.
