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.
In June 1963, Press Association photographer Malcolm Browne took a photograph that would change the course of history forever: the self-immolation of Buddhist Monk Thich Quang Duc on a bustling Saigon street. Browne later reported that Quang Duc was burning, in the lotus position, for 10 minutes before his body collapsed. He did not scream; he did not move; he embraced his fiery fate in protest to the pro-Catholic, discriminatory Buddhist laws enforced by the regime of Catholic President Ngo Dinh Diem.
Quang Duc’s act of martyrdom symbolised the volatility of his nation and triggered a monumental response from the United States; it has since come to represent rebellion, protest and the fight against injustice around the world. President Kennedy later commented: 'No news picture in history has generated so much emotion around the world as that one.'
