We can study endless volumes of history texts and impress our professors. Real photographs of historical treasures, on the other hand, are more all-revealing. In 1827, mankind discovered that catching and storing transitory moments was feasible thanks to Joseph Niepce’s camera obscura. They didn’t look back after that.
This time, we’ll take you on an emotional roller coaster that will transport us to the past. These are one-of-a-kind events, from the snapshot of the nine monarchs of Europe captured together for the first and only time to the photograph of workmen painting the Eiffel Tower.
In an unstaged manner, they reveal what genuinely made humans proud, moved them to tears, or left them heartbroken. Sometimes, the pics just show what kept them busy during the day. Fasten your seat belts, relax, and enjoy the time travel.
#1 In 1969, When Black Americans Were Still Prevented From Swimming Alongside Whites, Mr. Rogers Decided To Invite Officer Clemmons To Join Him And Cool His Feet In A Pool, Breaking A Well-Known Color Barrier
#2 Incredible Photograph Of A German Soldier Going Against Direct Orders To Help A Young Boy Cross The Newly Formed Berlin Wall After Being Separated From His Family, 1961
#3 Charles Thompson Greets His New Classmates At Public School No. 27 In September 1954, Less Than Four Months After The Supreme Court Ruled That Racial Segregation Was Unconstitutional. Charles Was The Only African-American Child In The School. Photo By Richard Stacks For The Baltimore Sun
To find out just the meaning behind these historical photographs in a broader sense, Bored Panda reached out to Marcelo Guimarães Lima, a visual artist (drawing, painting, printmaking), writer and teacher. In his art, Marcelo employs figurative and abstract approaches to explore questions related to personal, historical, social, and political issues of our diverse life-worlds.
“It did alter the world for us, image viewers and image creators,” Marcelo continued, “because it did change the world for us, image viewers and image producers.”
The artist claims that the historical photographs that immortalized these pivotal moments in history show us both permanence and change: “the change of circumstances (which can also, at critical times, change the subjects), the permanence of challenges and struggles related to both short and long durations and processes.”
#4 Princess Diana Shakes Hands With An Aids Patient Without Gloves, 1991
#5 A Policeman In San Francisco Scolds A Man For Not Wearing A Mask During The 1918 Influenza Pandemic, 1918
#6 Jewish Prisoners After Being Liberated From A Death Train, 1945
Marcelo went on to say that uncertainties in photography represent ambiguities in circumstances. “Photography’s rhetoric is one of mediated immediacy, and its effects are also influenced by the context of ideas stated or guided by the language context (captions, text, and so on).”
As a consequence, it all boils down to the circumstances surrounding the message’s interpretation. It also affects it. “‘The Queen of England as a military mechanic during WWII,’ for example, is now a type of sarcastic art, or rather, the inherent irony of the image/message,” Marcelo explained.
#7 Members Of Dutch Resistance Celebrate The News Of Adolf Hitler’s Death, April 1945
#8 Margaret Hamilton And The Handwritten Navigation Software She And Her Mit Team Produced For The Apollo Project, 1969
#9 Statue Of David By Michelangelo, Encased In Bricks To Prevent Damage From Bombs, During World War 2
Photography’s history is as fascinating as history itself. After all, these historical photographs would not exist if it weren’t for cameras.
However, it turns out that photography was invented quite recently (in historical terms), fewer than two hundred years ago. It all began in 1826, when Joseph Nicéphore Niépce devised the photography technique, which he used to create the first known surviving image of nature. Heliography is a wireless telegraph that uses flashes of sunlight (usually in Morse code) reflected by a mirror to send messages.
Following heliography, Louis Daguerre invented the daguerreotypy method of photography, which was sixty to eighty times faster than Niepce’s original approach. In the United Kingdom, Henry Fox Talbot was experimenting with talbotypy, which employed silver iodide-coated paper.
#10 An American Soldier Cradles A Wounded Japanese Boy And Shelters Him From The Rain In The Cockpit Of An Airplane During The Battle Of Saipan While Waiting To Transport The Youngster To A Field Hospital. July, 1944
#11 A Serbian Soldier Sleeps With His Father Who Came To Visit Him On The Front Line Near Belgrade, 1914/1915
#12 Louis Armstrong Playing For His Wife, Egypt, 1961
Only in 1889 was the world introduced to George Eastman’s pioneering roll film. Following these photographic breakthroughs, German inventor Oskar Barnack developed the first 35mm camera in 1913.
The first digital camera was introduced in 1957, and it was a binary digital version of an existing camera that allowed images to be sent to a digital computer.
Today, it’s impossible to fathom the internet and social media without images (what would we do if we didn’t have cat pictures?!). Tim Berners-Lee, however, did not put the first image on the internet until 1992. It was a photograph of Les Horribles Cernettes, a housing project at CERN Laboratory in Switzerland, where Tim was working on the World Wide Web.
#13 Anne Frank’s Father Otto, Revisiting The Attic Where They Hid From The Nazis. He Was The Only Surviving Family Member (1960)
#14 A Man Rides A Bus In Durban, Meant For White Passengers Only, In Resistance To South Africa’s Apartheid Policies, 1986
#15 Ruby Bridges, The First African-American To Attend A White Elementary School In The Deep South, 1960
#16 Young Queen Elizabeth As A Mechanic During WW2 (C. 1939)
#17 A Man Arrested For Cross-Dressing Emerging From A Police Van, New York, 1939
#18 Albert Einstein, His Secretary Helen (Left), And Daughter Margaret (Right) Becoming U.S. Citizens To Avoid Returning To Nazi Germany, 1940
#19 Soldiers Returning Home From WWII, 1945
#20 Freddie Mercury With His Mother, 1947
#21 When Nazis Asked Lepa Radic Who Were Her ‘Accomplices’ Before They Hanged Her She Responded: ‘You’ll Know Them When They Come To Avenge Me.’ Young Serbian Girl Was Hanged At The Age Of 17 Near Gradiska In 1943. During The Battle Of Kozara, She Lost Her Father, Brother (15) And Her Uncle
#22 David Isom, 19, Broke The Color Line In A Segregated Pool In Florida On June 8, 1958, Which Resulted In Officials Closing The Facility
#23 A German Soldier Returns Home Only To Find His Family No Longer There. Frankfurt, 1946
#24 WWI. A Canadian Soldier Tries To Comfort A Little Belgian Baby, Who Was Hurt And Whose Mother Was Killed By An Artillery Shell. November 1918
#25 May 20, 1910: The Nine Kings Of Europe Photographed Together For The First And Only Time
#26 A Hired Reader Reads To Cigar Makers Hard At Work In Cuban Cigar Factory (Ca. 1900-1910). Because Many Cigar Factory Employees Were Illiterate Lectors Were Hired To Read Novels, Poetry, Nonfiction Works, And Newspapers Determined By Consensus
#27 “The Drunk Basket.” In The 1960s, Bars In Istanbul Would Hire Someone To Carry Drunk People Back To Their Homes
#28 Russian Inmate Points An Identifying And Accusing Finger At A Nazi Guard Who Was Especially Cruel Towards The Prisoners In Buchenwald Camp
#29 A French Women Welcomes An American Soldier Two Days After Liberation. Strasbourg, France, 22 November 1944
#30 September 3, 1967: The Day Sweden Switched From Driving On The Left To The Right Side Of The Road
