Unique photographs of all times. "Birth of Venus", Sandro Botticelli. "The Last Judgment", Hieronymus Bosch

There are millions of paintings in the world that are created and shown in galleries and museums around the world. However, not all of them are as famous and recognizable as those listed below. Here is a list with photos of ten of the most famous paintings in the world.

Guernica

Guernica is a famous painting by Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, painted in May 1937. It is an oil painting in black and white, done at incredible speed - in just a month. The canvas, 3.5 m high and 7.8 m long, depicts scenes of death, violence, atrocity, suffering and helplessness. It is believed that the reason for its creation was the bombing of the city of the Basque Country - Guernica. Kept in the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid, the capital of Spain.

Self-Portrait of Vincent van Gogh without a Beard is by far the most famous of the few portraits of Vincent van Gogh that depicts him without a beard. In total, Vincent Van Gogh painted more than 38 of his portraits. It is believed that the artist created this painting as a gift for his mother’s birthday. Today it is one of the most expensive paintings of all time. It was sold for $71.5 million in 1998, and is now stored in private collection.

The night Watch

The Night Watch or “The Performance of the Rifle Company of Captain Frans Banning Cock and Lieutenant Willem van Ruytenburg” is a famous painting by the famous artist Rembrandt van Rijn, painted in 1642. Is one of the most famous Dutch paintings Golden Age. The canvas is famous for three characteristics: its colossal size (363 cm × 437 cm), its effective use of light and shadow, and its perception of movement. The painting is now kept in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

Girl with a Pearl Earring - famous painting Dutch artist by Johannes Vermeer, painted around 1665. She is often called the Dutch or Northern Mona Lisa. Very little is known about the painting. According to one version, it depicts the artist’s daughter Maria. The canvas measures 44.5 × 39 cm and is now kept in the Mauritshuis Museum in The Hague, the Netherlands.

The Persistence of Memory is one of the most recognizable and famous paintings by the Spanish painter Salvador Dali. It was written in 1931. This small canvas (24x33 cm) was first shown at the Julien Levy Gallery in 1932. Now kept in the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Scream

The Scream is a famous painting painted by Norwegian expressionist artist Edvard Munch in 1893. This is the most famous of the four oil versions of The Scream that the artist created between 1893 and 1910, using various techniques. Stored in National Museum Norway.

Starlight Night

Starry Night is a famous painting painted by post-impressionist Vincent van Gogh in June 1889. It is considered one of his best works, as well as one of the most famous in the history of Western culture. Kept in the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

The Creation of Adam - famous fresco Italian master Renaissance painting by Michelangelo, painted around 1511. Forms part of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and illustrates biblical narrative from the Book of Genesis, in which God breathes life into Adam, the first man. Along with Leonardo da Vinci's painting, The Last Supper is the most religious painting of all time.

The Last Supper - world famous monumental painting Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci, created in 1495-1498 on the back wall of the refectory of the Dominican monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, Italy. The painting depicts a scene described in the Bible as the Last Supper - Christ's last supper with his disciples. The size of the painting is approximately 460×880 cm.

Mona Lisa, aka Gioconda, is perhaps the most famous painting in the world, by the Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci, painted approximately between 1503-1505. It is believed to be a portrait of Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a silk merchant from Florence. The most recognizable painting in the world belongs to the French government and is kept in the Louvre in Paris.

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The collections of Moscow museums and galleries are among the richest in the world. More than 150 years ago Russian philanthropists and collectors began to collect the most famous paintings world, unique artistic creations, sparing neither money nor time in searching for talent. And so that you don’t get lost in the tens of thousands of paintings presented, we have selected for you famous paintings world, presented in museums and galleries of Moscow

State Tretyakov Gallery

“Bogatyrs”, Viktor Vasnetsov, 1881-1898.

For almost twenty years, Viktor Mikhailovich worked on one of the greatest works of art Russia, a masterpiece that has become a symbol of the power of the Russian people. Vasnetsov considered this picture his creative duty, an obligation to his homeland. In the center of the picture are the three main characters of Russian epics: Dobrynya Nikitich, Ilya Muromets and Alyosha Popovich. The prototype of Alyosha Popovich was the youngest son of Savva Mamontov, but Dobrynya Nikitich - collective image the artist himself, his father and grandfather.

Photo: wikimedia.org

“Unknown”, Ivan Kramskoy, 1883

A mystical picture, shrouded in an aura of mystery. She changed her owners many times, as women claimed that when they stayed near this portrait for a long time, they lost their youth and beauty. It is curious that even Pavel Tretyakov did not want to buy it for his collection, and the work appeared in the gallery only in 1925 as a result of the nationalization of private collections. Only in Soviet times was Kramskoy’s “Unknown” recognized as an ideal of beauty and spirituality. It is easy to recognize Nevsky Prospekt in the background of the painting, or rather the Anichkov Bridge, along which the “unknown” gracefully passes in an elegant carriage. Who's that girl? Another mystery left by the artist. Kramskoy left no mention of her personality either in his letters or in his diaries, and versions differ: from the author’s daughter to Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina.

Photo: dreamwidth.org

"Morning in pine forest", Ivan Shishkin and Konstantin Savitsky, 1889

Few people know that in addition to Ivan Shishkin, another famous person took part in the creation of this picture. Russian artist, whose signature, at the insistence of Pavel Tretyakov, was erased. Ivan Ivanovich, who had an exceptional talent as a painter, depicted the grandeur of the awakening forest, but the creation of the playing bears belongs to the brush of his comrade, Konstantin Savitsky. This picture has another popular name - “Three Bears”, which appeared thanks to the famous candies of the Red October factory.

Photo: wikimedia.org

“Seated Demon”, Mikhail Vrubel, 1890

Tretyakov Gallery- a unique place for fans of the work of Mikhail Vrubel, since here is the most full of meetings his paintings. The theme of the demon, personifying the internal struggle of the greatness of the human spirit with doubts and suffering, became the main one in the artist’s work and a phenomenal phenomenon in world painting.

“The Seated Demon” is the most famous of these images by Vrubel. The painting was created with fairly large, sharp strokes of a palette knife, reminiscent of a mosaic from a distance.

Photo: muzei-mira.com

“Boyaryna Morozova”, Vasily Surikov, 1884-1887.

Gigantic in size epic historical painting was written based on “The Tale of Boyarina Morozova,” an associate of supporters of the old faith. The author spent a long time looking for a suitable face - bloodless, fanatical, from which he could write a portrait sketch of the main character. Surikov recalled that the key to the image of Morozova was given by a crow he once saw with a damaged wing, which was desperately beating against the snow.

Photo: gallery-allart.do.am

“Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan November 16, 1581” or “Ivan the Terrible kills his son”, Ilya Repin, 1883-1885.

This picture does not leave any gallery visitor indifferent: it causes anxiety, inexplicable fear, attracts and at the same time repels, fascinates and gives goosebumps. Repin wrote about his feelings of anxiety and excitement during the creation of the painting: “I worked as if spellbound. For minutes it became scary. I turned away from this picture. Hid her. But something drove me to her, and I worked again. Sometimes a shiver ran through me, and then the feeling of nightmare dulled...” The artist managed to complete the painting for the 300th anniversary of the death of Ivan the Terrible, but the masterpiece did not immediately appear before the public: for three months the painting was banned by censorship. They say that the painting mystically brought disaster to its creator and the people who participated in its creation. After completing the painting, Repin lost his hand, and the artist’s friend, who posed for the painting in the role of the murdered Ivan, went crazy.

Photo: artpoisk.info

“Girl with Peaches”, Valentin Serov, 1887

This painting is considered one of the most joyful, fresh and lyrical paintings late XIX century. Youth and thirst for life here are felt in every stroke of the still very young (22 years old) Valentin Serov, in the light, subtle smile of Verochka Mamontova, the daughter of a famous entrepreneur and philanthropist, as well as in the bright and cozy room, the warmth of which spills over to its viewer.

Serov later became one of the best portrait painters, recognized almost all over the world, and immortalized many famous contemporaries, but “Girl with Peaches” still remains his most famous work.

Photo: allpainters.ru

“Bathing the Red Horse”, Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin, 1912

Art critics call this picture visionary. They believe that the author symbolically predicted the “red” fate of Russia in the twentieth century, depicting it in the image of a racing horse.

Petrov-Vodkin’s work is not just a painting, but a symbol, an epiphany, a manifesto. Contemporaries compare the power of its impact with Kazimir Malevich’s “Black Square,” which you can also see in the Tretyakov Gallery.

Photo: wikiart.org

“Black Square”, Kazemir Malevich, 1915

This painting is called an icon of the Futurists, which they put in place of the Madonna. According to the author, it took several months to create it, and it became part of a triptych, which also included “Black Circle” and “Black Cross”. As it turned out, Malevich painted the primary layer of the painting with different colors and, if you look closely, you will see that the corners of the square can hardly be called straight. In the history of world art it is difficult to find a painting with greater fame than “Black Square” by Kazimir Malevich. He is copied, imitated, but his masterpiece is unique.

Photo: wikimedia.org

Gallery of art from Europe and America of the 19th–20th centuries. State Museum of Fine Arts named after A.S. Pushkin

“Portrait of Jeanne Samary”, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1877

It is paradoxical that this painting was originally planned by the artist just as a preparatory sketch for a ceremonial portrait French actress Jeanne Samari, which can be seen in the Hermitage. But in the end, art critics unanimously agreed that this is the best of all Renoir’s portraits of the actress. The artist so skillfully combined the tones and half-tones of Samari’s dress that as a result the picture sparkled with an unusual optical effect: when viewed from a certain angle, Jeanne’s green dress turns blue.

Photo: art-shmart.livejournal.com

"Boulevard des Capucines in Paris", Claude Monet, 1873

This is one of the most recognizable works of Claude Monet - the pride and heritage of the Pushkin Museum. From a close distance, only small strokes are visible in the picture, but if you take just a few steps back, the picture comes to life: Paris breathes fresh air, the rays of the sun illuminate the seething crowd that is bustlingly moving along the boulevard, and it seems you can even hear the city rumble that can be heard far beyond the picture. This is the skill of the great impressionist Monet: for a moment you forget about the plane of the canvas and dissolve in the illusion skillfully created by the artist.

Photo: nb12.ru

"Prisoners' Walk", Van Gogh, 1890

There is something symbolic in the fact that Van Gogh wrote Prisoners' Walk, one of his most poignant creations, in the hospital where he was first admitted due to the onset of mental illness. Moreover, if you look closely, you can clearly see that central character The paintings are endowed with features by the artists. Despite the use of pure shades of blue, green and purple colors, the color of the canvas seems gloomy, and the prisoners moving in a circle seem to be saying that there is no way out of the dead end, where life is like a vicious circle.

Photo: opisanie-kartin.com

"The King's Wife", Paul Gauguin, 1896

Many art critics consider this work of the artist to be a unique pearl among the famous nude maidens of European art. It was painted by Gauguin during his second stay in Tahiti. By the way, the painting depicts not the king’s wife, but Gauguin himself - 13-year-old Tehura. The exotic and picturesque landscape of the picture cannot but arouse admiration - the abundance of colors and greenery, colored trees and the blue coastline in the distance.

Photo: stsvv.livejournal.com

"Blue Dancers", Edgar Degas, 1897

The works of the French impressionist Edgar Degas contributed invaluable contribution into the history of world and French fine art. The painting “Blue Dancers” is recognized as one of best works Degas on the theme of ballet, to which he devoted many of his most outstanding paintings. The painting was done in pastel, which the artist especially loved for its elegant combination of color and lines. "Blue Dancers" refers to late period the artist’s creativity, when his eyesight weakened and he began to work with large spots of color.

Photo: nearyou.ru

"Girl on a Ball", Pablo Picasso, 1905

One of the most famous and significant works " rose period» Pablo Picasso appeared in Russia thanks to the philanthropist and collector Ivan Morozov, who acquired it in 1913 for his personal collection. The blue color, in which almost all the works of the artist’s previous difficult period were painted, is still present in the work, but is noticeably weakening, giving way to a lighter and more joyful pink. Picasso's canvases are easily recognizable: the author's soul and his extraordinary perception of the world around him are clearly visible in them. And as the artist himself said: “I could draw like Raphael, but it would take me my whole life to learn to draw like a child.”

Photo: dawn.com

Address: Lavrushinsky lane, 10

Permanent exhibition “Art of the 20th century” and exhibition halls

Address: Krymsky Val, 10

Operating mode:

Tuesday, Wednesday, Sunday - from 10.00 to 18.00

Thursday, Friday, Saturday - from 10.00 to 21.00

Monday - closed

Entrance fee:

Adult - 400 rubles ($6)

Gallery of art from Europe and America of the 19th–20th centuries.

Address: Moscow, st. Volkhonka, 14

Operating mode:

Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday - from 11:00 to 20:00

Thursday - from 11:00 to 21:00

Monday - closed

Entrance fee:

Adult - 300 rubles ($4.5), on Fridays from 17:00 - 400 rubles ($6)

Discount ticket - 150 rubles ($2.5), on Fridays from 17:00 - 200 rubles ($3)

Children under 16 years old free

“Every portrait painted with feeling is, in essence, a portrait of the artist, and not of the one who posed for him” Oscar Wilde

What does it take to be an artist? A simple imitation of a work cannot be considered art. Art is something that comes from within. The author's idea, passion, search, desires and sorrows, which are embodied on the artist's canvas. Throughout the history of mankind, hundreds of thousands, and perhaps millions of paintings have been painted. Some of them are truly masterpieces, known all over the world, even people who have nothing to do with art know them. Is it possible to identify the 25 most outstanding among such paintings? The task is very difficult, but we tried...

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25

"The Persistence of Memory", Salvador Dali

Thanks to this painting, Dali became famous at a fairly young age, he was 28 years old. The painting has several other names - “ Soft watch", "Memory hardness". This masterpiece has attracted the attention of many art critics. Basically, they were interested in the interpretation of the painting. It is said that the idea behind Dali's painting is related to Einstein's theory of relativity.

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24

"Dance", Henri Matisse

Henri Matisse was not always an artist. He discovered his love for painting after receiving a law degree in Paris. He studied art so zealously that he became one of the greatest artists in the world. This painting has very little negative criticism from art critics. It reflects a combination of pagan rituals, dance and music. People dance in a trance. Three colors - green, blue and red, symbolize Earth, Sky and Humanity.

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23

"The Kiss", Gustav Klimt

Gustav Klimt was often criticized for the nudity in his paintings. "The Kiss" was noticed by critics as it merged all forms of art. The painting could be a depiction of the artist himself and his lover, Emilia. Klimt wrote this painting under the influence Byzantine mosaic. The Byzantines used gold in their paintings. Likewise, Gustav Klimt mixed gold in his paints to create his own style of painting.

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22

"Sleeping Gypsy", Henri Rousseau

No one except Rousseau himself could describe this picture better. Here is his description - “a nomadic gypsy who sings her songs to the accompaniment of a mandolin, sleeps on the ground from fatigue, her jug ​​of drinking water lies nearby. A lion passing by came up to sniff her, but did not touch her. Everything is bathed in moonlight, a very poetic atmosphere.” It is noteworthy that Henri Rousseau is self-taught.

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21

"The Last Judgment", Hieronymus Bosch

Without further ado, the picture is simply magnificent. This triptych is the largest surviving painting by Bosch. The left wing shows the story of Adam and Eve. The central part is the "last judgment" on the part of Jesus - who should go to heaven and who should go to hell. The earth we see here is burning. The right wing depicts a disgusting image of hell.

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20

Everyone knows Narcissus from Greek mythology- a man who was obsessed with his appearance. Dali wrote his own interpretation of Narcissus.

This is the story. The beautiful young man Narcissus easily broke the hearts of many girls. The gods intervened and, to punish him, showed him his reflection in the water. The narcissist fell in love with himself and eventually died because he was never able to embrace himself. Then the Gods regretted doing this to him and decided to immortalize him in the form of a narcissus flower.

On the left side of the picture is Narcissus looking at his reflection. After which he fell in love with himself. The right panel shows the events that unfolded after, including the resulting flower, the daffodil.

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19

The plot of the film is based on the biblical massacre of the infants in Bethlehem. After the birth of Christ became known from the wise men, King Herod ordered the killing of all small male children and infants in Bethlehem. In the picture, the massacre is at its peak, the last few children, who were taken from their mothers, await their merciless death. Also visible are the corpses of children, for whom everything is already behind them.

Thanks to the use of rich color range, Rubens' painting has become a world-famous masterpiece.

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18

Pollock's work is very different from other artists. He placed his canvas on the ground and moved around and around the canvas, dripping paint from above onto the canvas using sticks, brushes and syringes. Thanks to this unique technology in artistic circles he was nicknamed "Jack the Sprinkler". For some time, this painting held the title of the most expensive painting in the world.

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17

Also known as "Dancing at Le Moulin de la Galette". This painting is considered one of Renoir's most joyful paintings. The idea of ​​the film is to show viewers the fun side of Parisian life. Upon closer examination of the painting, you can see that Renoir placed several of his friends on the canvas. Because the painting appears slightly blurred, it was initially criticized by Renoir's contemporaries.

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16

The plot is taken from the Bible. The painting “The Last Supper” depicts Christ’s last supper before his arrest. He had just spoken to his apostles and told them that one of them would betray him. All the apostles are saddened and tell him that it is, of course, not them. It was this moment that Da Vinci beautifully depicted through his vivid depiction. The great Leonardo took four years to complete this painting.

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15

Monet's "Water Lilies" can be found everywhere. You've probably seen them on wallpapers, posters and covers art magazines. The fact is that Monet was obsessed with lilies. Before he started painting them, he grew countless numbers of these flowers. Monet built a bridge in Japanese style in his garden over a lily pond. He was so pleased with what he had achieved that he drew this plot seventeen times in one year.

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14

There is something sinister and mysterious in this picture; there is an aura of fear around it. Only such a master as Munch was able to depict fear on paper. Munch made four versions of The Scream in oil and pastel. According to the entries in Munch's diary, it is quite clear that he himself believed in death and spirits. In the painting “The Scream,” he depicted himself at the moment when one day, while walking with friends, he felt fear and excitement, which he wanted to paint.

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13

The painting, which is usually mentioned as a symbol of motherhood, was not supposed to become one. It is said that Whistler's model, who was supposed to sit for the painting, did not show up, and he decided to paint his mother instead. We can say that this is depicted sad life the artist's mother. This mood is due to the dark colors that are used in this painting.

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12

Picasso met Dora Maar in Paris. They say that she was intellectually closer to Picasso than all his previous mistresses. Using Cubism, Picasso was able to convey movement in his work. It seems that Maar's face turns to the right, towards Picasso's face. The artist made the woman's presence almost real. Maybe he wanted to feel like she was there, always.

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11

Van Gogh wrote Starry Night while undergoing treatment, where he was only allowed to paint while his condition improved. Earlier in the same year, he cut off his left earlobe. Many considered the artist crazy. Of the entire collection of Van Gogh's works, "Starry Night" received the most great fame, possibly due to the unusual spherical light around the stars.

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10

In this painting, Manet recreated Titian's Venus of Urbino. The artist had a bad reputation for depicting prostitutes. Although gentlemen at that time visited courtesans quite often, they did not think that anyone would take it into their heads to paint them. Then it was preferable for artists to paint pictures of historical, mythical or biblical themes. However, Manet, going against the criticism, showed the audience their contemporary.

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9

This painting is a historical canvas that depicts Napoleon's conquest of Spain.

Having received an order for paintings depicting the struggle of the people of Spain against Napoleon, the artist did not paint heroic and pathetic canvases. He chose the moment when the Spanish rebels were shot by French soldiers. Each of the Spaniards experiences this moment in their own way, some have already resigned themselves, but for others the main battle has just arrived. War, blood and death, that's what Goya actually depicted.

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8

It is believed that the girl depicted is eldest daughter Vermeer, Maria. Its features are present in many of his works, but they are difficult to compare. A book with the same title was written by Tracy Chevalier. But Tracy has a completely different version of who is depicted in this picture. She claims that she took this topic because there is very little information about Vermeer and his paintings, and this particular painting exudes a mysterious atmosphere. Later, a film was made based on her novel.

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7

The exact title of the painting is “Performance of the Rifle Company of Captain Frans Banning Cock and Lieutenant Willem van Ruytenburg.” The Rifle Society was a civilian militia that was called upon to defend the city. In addition to the militia, Rembrandt added several extra people to the composition. Considering that he bought an expensive house while painting this picture, it may well be true that he received a huge fee for The Night's Watch.

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6

Although the painting contains an image of Velázquez himself, it is not a self-portrait. The main character of the canvas is Infanta Margarita, daughter of King Philip IV. This depicts the moment when Velazquez, working on a portrait of the king and queen, is forced to stop and look at the Infanta Margarita, who has just entered the room with her retinue. The painting looks almost alive, arousing curiosity in the audience.

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5

This is the only painting by Bruegel that was painted in oil rather than tempera. There are still doubts about the authenticity of the painting, mainly for two reasons. Firstly, he did not paint in oils, and secondly, recent studies have shown that under the layer of painting there is schematic drawing of poor quality, which does not belong to Bruegel.

The painting depicts the story of Icarus and the moment of his fall. According to myth, Icarus' feathers were attached with wax, and because Icarus rose very close to the sun, the wax melted and he fell into the water. This landscape inspired W. Hugh Auden to write his most famous poem on the same topic.

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4

The School of Athens is perhaps the most famous fresco by the Italian Renaissance artist, Raphael.

On this fresco in Athens school All the great mathematicians, philosophers and scientists have gathered under one roof, they share their theories and learn from each other. All the heroes lived in different time, but Raphael placed them all in one room. Some of the figures are Aristotle, Plato, Pythagoras and Ptolemy. A closer look reveals that this painting also contains a self-portrait of Raphael himself. Every artist would like to leave their mark, the only difference is the form. Although maybe he considered himself one of these great figures?

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3

Michelangelo never considered himself an artist, he always thought of himself more as a sculptor. But, he managed to create an amazing, exquisite fresco that the whole world is in awe of. This masterpiece is on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. Michelangelo was commissioned to paint several biblical stories, one of which was the creation of Adam. In this picture the sculptor in Michelangelo is clearly visible. Human body Adam is rendered with incredible precision using vibrant colors and precise muscular shapes. So, we can agree with the author, after all, he is more of a sculptor.

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2

"Mona Lisa", Leonardo da Vinci

Although it is the most studied painting, the Mona Lisa still remains the most mysterious. Leonardo said that he never stopped working on it. Only his death, as they say, completed work on the canvas. "Mona Lisa" is the first Italian portrait in which the model is depicted from the waist up. Mona Lisa's skin appears to glow due to the use of several layers of transparent oils. Being scientists Leonardo da Vinci used all his knowledge to make the image of Mona Lisa realistic. As for who exactly is depicted in the painting, it still remains a mystery.

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1

The painting shows Venus, the goddess of love, floating on a shell in the wind, which is blown by Zephyr, the god of the west wind. She is met on the shore by Ora, the goddess of the seasons, who is ready to dress the newborn deity. The model for Venus is considered to be Simonetta Cattaneo de Vespucci. Simonetta Cattaneo died at 22, and Botticelli wished to be buried next to her. Connected him with her unrequited love. This painting is the most exquisite work of art ever created.

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Conclusion

This was an article TOP 25 most famous paintings in the world. Thank you for your attention!

All photographs shown below are winners of World Press photo competitions over the years.

“The most famous photograph that no one has seen,” is what Associated Press photographer Richard Drew calls his photograph of one of the victims of the World War II. shopping center, who jumped out of the window towards own death 11 September. “On that day, which, more than any other day in history, was captured on cameras and film,” Tom Junod later wrote in Esquire, “the only taboo, by common consent, was the pictures of people jumping out of windows.” Five years later, Richard Drew's Falling Man remains a terrible artifact of the day that should have changed everything, but didn't.

A photograph that showed the face of the Great Depression. Thanks to legendary photographer Dorothea Lange, for many years Florence Owen Thompson was literally the personification of the Great Depression. Lange took the photo while visiting a vegetable picker's camp in California in February 1936, wanting to show the world the resilience and resilience of a proud nation in Hard times. Today, similar photographs (as well as videos) can be taken using the xiaomi yi action camera, but in those days they used more primitive cameras. Dorothea's life story turned out to be as attractive as her portrait. At 32, she was already a mother of seven children and a widow (her husband died of tuberculosis). Finding themselves practically penniless in a labor camp for displaced people, her family ate poultry meat that the children managed to shoot and vegetables from the farm—the same way the other 2,500 camp workers lived. The publication of the photo had the effect of a bomb exploding. Thompson's story, which appeared on the covers of the most respected publications, caused an immediate response from the public. The IDP Administration immediately sent food and basic necessities to the camp. Unfortunately, by this time the Thompson family had already left their home and received nothing from the government’s generosity. It should be noted that at that time no one knew the name of the woman depicted in the photograph. Only forty years after the publication of this photograph, in 1976, Thompson “revealed” herself by giving an interview to one of the central newspapers.

Stanley Forman/Boston Herald, USA. July 22, 1975, Boston. A girl and a woman fall trying to escape a fire.

Photographer Nick Yut took a photo of a Vietnamese girl running away from a napalm explosion. It was this photo that made the whole world think about the Vietnam War. The photo of 9-year-old girl Kim Phuc on June 8, 1972 has gone down in history forever. Kim first saw this photo 14 months later in a hospital in Saigon, where she was being treated for strange burns. Kim still remembers running from her siblings on the day of the bombing and cannot forget the sound of the bombs falling. A soldier tried to help and poured water on her, not realizing that this would make the burns even worse. Photographer Nick South helped the girl and took her to the hospital. At first, the photographer doubted whether to publish a photo of a naked girl, but then decided that the world should see this photo. Later the photo was called best photo XX century. Nick Yut tried to protect Kim from becoming too popular, but in 1982, when the girl was studying at medical university, the Vietnamese government found her, and Kim's image has been used in propaganda circuits ever since. “I was under constant control. I wanted to die, this Photo haunted me,” says Kim. Later there was immigration to Cuba, where she was able to continue her education. There she met her future husband. Together they moved to Canada. Many years later, she finally realized that she could not escape from this photograph, and decided to use it and her fame to fight for peace.

Fire in the Triangle Shirtwaist Company building, 1911 The American Triangle Shirtwaist Company became famous in the United States thanks to its love for the cheap labor of young immigrant women in its factories. Since there was still a risk that such personnel would steal, work time The shop doors were closed until the end of the shift. It was this “tradition” that caused the tragedy that occurred on March 25, 1911, when a fire broke out on the ninth floor of a factory building in New York. At first, witnesses to the fire thought that the workers were saving the most expensive fabrics from the fire, but, as it turned out, people locked in the burning workshop themselves jumped out of the windows. After this, a nationwide campaign aimed at improving occupational safety began in the United States.

Biafra, 1969 When the Igbo tribe declared themselves independent from Nigeria in 1967, Nigeria imposed a blockade on their former eastern region of Nigeria, the newly proclaimed Republic of Biafra. The war between Nigeria and Biafra lasted 3 years. More than a million people died during this war, mainly from starvation. War photographer Don McCullin, who took this photograph, commented on his visit to the camp where 900 starving children were being held: “I don’t want to photograph soldiers on the battlefield anymore.”

Mustafa Bozdeinir/Hurriyet Gazetesi, Türkiye. October 30, 1983. Koyunoren, eastern Türkiye. Kezban Ozer found her five children dead after a devastating earthquake.

James Nachtwey/Magnum Photos/USA for Liberation, USA/France. November 1992. Bardera, Somalia. A mother lifts the body of her child, who has died of hunger, to take him to the grave.

Hector Rondon Lovera/Diario La Republica, Venezuela. June 4, 1962, Puerto Cabello naval base. A sniper fatally wounded a soldier who is now holding on to priest Luis Padillo.

Yasushi Nagao/Mainichi Shimbun, Japan. October 12, 1960, Tokyo. A right-wing student kills the chairman of the Socialist Party, Inejiro Asanuma.

Helmut Pirath, Germany. 1956, eastern Germany. The daughter meets a German prisoner of World War II, who was released by the USSR.

Mike Wells, UK. April 1980. Karamoja region, Uganda. A terribly hungry boy and a missionary.

DEATH OF GOEBBELS. During the capture of Berlin Soviet troops The main ideologist of fascism, Joseph Goebbels, took poison, having first poisoned his family - his wife and six children. The corpses, according to his dying order, were burned. Here is a photograph showing the corpse of a criminal. The photo was taken in the Imperial Chancellery building on May 2, 1945 by Major Vasily Krupennikov. On the back of the photo, Vasily wrote: “We covered Goebbels’s sensitive spot with a handkerchief, it was very unpleasant to look at it...”

All the pain is in just one look... (Henry Cartier Bresson) The photo was taken in 1948-1949, when the author traveled to China. The photo shows a hungry boy standing for a long time in an endless line for rice.

The moments when the assassin John F. Kennedy was shot (Robert H. Jackson) The author filmed Oswald, the man who at one time took the life of the President of the United States of America, John F. Kennedy. Everywhere there were indignant people who demanded death penalty for the criminal. The photographer pressed the shutter and took another photo. Just as the flash was charging for the next shot, the killer was shot. The shot was fatal for Oswald.

The event depicted in the photograph cannot be called a worldwide tragedy (out of 97 people, 35 died), but everyone considers this photograph to be the one that marked the beginning of the oblivion of airships - the frame captured the crash of the Hindenburg airship of one well-known manufacturer. A dozen photographers from various publications had contracts for photography. From that moment on, the airship was no longer considered the safest mode of transport in the world - soon its era was over.

Jean-Marc Bouju/AP. France. March 31, 2003. An Najaf, Iraq. A man tries to alleviate the difficult conditions for his son in a prison for prisoners of war.

The photograph of an officer shooting a handcuffed prisoner in the head not only won a Pulitzer Prize in 1969, but also changed the way Americans think about what happened in Vietnam. Despite the obviousness of the image, in fact the photograph is not as clear as it seemed to ordinary Americans, filled with sympathy for the executed man. The fact is that the man in handcuffs is the captain of the Viet Cong "revenge warriors", and on this day many unarmed civilians were shot and killed by him and his henchmen. General Nguyen Ngoc Loan, pictured on the left, was haunted his whole life by his past: he was refused treatment at an Australian military hospital, after moving to the US he faced a massive campaign calling for his immediate deportation, the restaurant he opened in Virginia every day was attacked by vandals. "We know who you are!" - this inscription haunted the army general all his life.

By the early summer of 1994, Kevin Carter (1960-1994) was at the height of his fame. He had just won the Pulitzer Prize, and job offers from famous magazines were pouring in one after another. “Everyone congratulates me,” he wrote to his parents, “I can’t wait to meet you and show you my trophy. This is the highest recognition of my work, which I did not dare to even dream of." Kevin Carter received the Pulitzer Prize for his photograph "Famine in Sudan", taken in the early spring of 1993. On this day, Carter specially flew to Sudan to film scenes of famine in a small village. Tired of photographing people who had died of hunger, he left the village into a field overgrown with small bushes and suddenly heard a quiet cry. Looking around, he saw a little girl lying on the ground, apparently dying of hunger. He wanted to take a photo of her, but suddenly a vulture landed a few steps away. Very carefully, trying not to spook the bird, Kevin chose the best position and took the photo. After that, he waited another twenty minutes, hoping that the bird would spread its wings and give him the opportunity to get a better shot. But the damned bird did not move and, in the end, he spat and drove it away. Meanwhile, the girl apparently gained strength and walked - or rather crawled - further. And Kevin sat down near the tree and cried. He suddenly had a terrible desire to hug his daughter.

Malcolm Brown, a 30-year-old Associated Press photographer from New York, received a telephone call asking him to be at a certain intersection in Saigon the next morning because... something very important is about to happen. He arrived there with a reporter from the New York Times, and soon a car pulled up and several people got out. Buddhist monks. Among them is Thich Ouang Due, who sat in the lotus position with a box of matches in his hands, while the others began to pour gasoline on him. Thich Quang Due struck a match and turned into a living torch. Unlike the crying crowd that saw him burn, he did not make a sound or move. Thich Quang Duo wrote a letter to the then head of the Vietnamese government asking him to stop the repression of Buddhists, stop detaining monks and give them the right to practice and spread their religion, but received no response.

A 12-year-old Afghan girl is a famous photograph taken by Steve McCurry in a refugee camp on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. Soviet helicopters destroyed the village of a young refugee, her entire family died, and... Before getting to the camp, the girl traveled for two weeks in the mountains. After its publication in June 1985, this photograph became a National Geographic icon. Since then, this image has been used everywhere - from tattoos to rugs, which turned the photograph into one of the most widely circulated photos in the world.

The photograph was taken on September 29, 1932, on the 69th floor during the final months of construction of Rockefeller Center.

The photograph showing the hoisting of the Victory Banner over the Reichstag spread throughout the world. Evgeny Khaldey, 1945.

Death of a Nazi functionary and his family. Vienna, 1945 Evgeniy Khaldei: “I went to the park near the parliament building to film the passing columns of soldiers. And I saw this picture. On a bench sat a woman, killed with two shots - in the head and neck, next to her were a dead teenager of about fifteen and girl. A little further away lay the corpse of the father of the family. He had a gold NSDAP badge on his lapel, and a revolver lay nearby. (...) A watchman from the parliament building ran up: “He did it, he did it, not Russian soldiers. Came at 6 am. I saw him and his family from the basement window. Not a soul on the street. He moved the benches together, ordered the woman to sit down, and ordered the children to do the same. I didn't understand what he was going to do. And then he shot the mother and son. The girl resisted, then he laid her on a bench and also shot her. He stepped aside, looked at the result and shot himself."

Kyoichi Sawada/United Press International, Japan. February 24, 1966. Tan Binh, southern Vietnam. American soldiers drag the body of a Viet Cong (South Vietnamese rebel) soldier on a leash.

"Little adults"... Three American girls gossip in one of the alleys of Seville in Spain. For a long time post card with this image was the most popular in the United States.

The inimitable Marilyn Monroe Photography needs no comment! It depicts one of the best actresses of all years, Marilyn Monroe, during her break. The girl was distracted by someone and, by pure chance, she took her gaze away from the lens. However, this gave the picture extraordinary mystery and true charm.

Republican soldier Federico Borel García is depicted facing death. The photo caused a huge shock in society. The situation is absolutely unique. During the entire attack, the photographer took only one photo, and he took it at random, without looking through the viewfinder, he did not look towards the “model” at all. And this is one of the best, one of his most famous photographs. It was thanks to this photograph that already in 1938 newspapers called 25-year-old Robert Capa “The Greatest War Photographer in the World.”

White and Colored, photograph by Elliott Erwitt, 1950.

Douglas Martin/AP. USA. September 4, 1956—Dorothy Counts, one of the first black students, goes to college.

Anonymous/New York Times. September 11, 1973, Santiago, Chile. Democratically elected President Salvador Alende seconds before his death during a military coup at the presidential palace.

Kyoichi Sawada/United Press International, Japan-September 1965, Binh Dinh, southern Vietnam. A mother and children cross a river to escape American aerial bombardment.

The photo depicts a terrible tragedy - the November 13, 1985 eruption of the Colombian volcano Nevado del Ruiz. A muddy slurry from streams of mud and earth absorbed all living things beneath it. Over 23 thousand people died in those days. A girl, Omaira Sanchaz, was captured on camera a few hours before her death. She was unable to get out of the mud mess because her legs were pinned by a huge concrete slab. The rescuers did everything in their power. The girl behaved courageously, encouraging everyone around her. In a terrible trap, hoping for salvation, she spent three long days. On the fourth, she began hallucinating and died from contracted viruses.

Take a closer look at this photo. This is one of the most remarkable photographs ever taken. The baby's tiny hand reached out from the mother's womb to squeeze the surgeon's finger. By the way, the child is 21 weeks from conception, the age when he can still be legally aborted. The tiny hand in the photo belongs to a baby who was due on December 28 last year. The photo was taken during an operation in America. The child is literally grasping for life. It is therefore one of the most remarkable photographs in medicine and a record of one of the most extraordinary operations in the world. It shows a 21-week-old fetus in the womb, just before spinal surgery was required to save the baby from serious brain damage. The operation was performed through a tiny incision in the mother's wall and this is the youngest patient. At this stage, the mother may choose to have an abortion. Little Samuel's mum said they "cried for days" when they saw the photo. She said: "This picture reminds us that my pregnancy is not an illness or a disability, it is little man. "Samuel was born completely healthy, the operation was a 100% success. The doctor's name was Joseph Bruner. When he finished the operation, he said only one thing: “Beauty!” As an addition: in some Western countries it is legal to have an abortion up to 28 weeks / in France up to 22 weeks, in the Russian Federation up to 12 weeks.

The first X-ray, 1896 On January 13, 1896, Roentgen informed Emperor Wilhelm II of his achievement. And already on January 23 in Würzburg (Germany), where the famous laboratory of V. K. Roentgen was located, at a meeting of the Scientific Society of Medical Physicists, the scientist publicly took an X-ray of the hand of one of the present members of the society - anatomist Professor Kolliker.

At the end of April 2004, the CBS program 60 Minutes II aired a story about the torture and abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison by a group of American soldiers. The story featured photographs that were published in the magazine a few days later. The New Yorker." This became the biggest scandal surrounding the American presence in Iraq.

The photograph that brought war into every home. One of the first war photojournalists, Matthew Brady, was known as the creator of daguerreotypes of Abraham Lincoln and Robert E. Lee. Brady had it all: career, money, own business. And all this (and also own life) he decided to take a risk by following the army of northerners with a camera in his hands. Having narrowly escaped capture in the very first battle in which he took part, Brady somewhat lost his patriotic fervor and began sending assistants to the front line. Over the course of several years of war, Brady and his team took more than 7,000 photographs. This is quite an impressive figure, especially considering that taking a single photo required equipment and chemicals housed inside a covered wagon pulled by several horses. Not very similar to the usual digital point-and-shoot cameras? The photographs that seemed so at home on the battlefield had a very heavy aura. However, it was thanks to them that ordinary Americans were for the first time able to see the bitter and harsh military reality, not veiled by jingoistic slogans.

By Charles Moore/Black Star, 1963 Birmingham, Alaska, has long been known as a hotbed of conflict between its large African-American population and its white majority. The photo shows one of the episodes of the suppression of a peaceful demonstration for the rights of blacks, which was organized by Martin Luther King. The police use arrests, mounted units and shooting from guns, and poison people with dogs.

Poland - girl Teresa, who grew up in a concentration camp, draws a "house" on the board. 1948. © David Seymour

Alfred Eisenstaedt (1898-1995), a photographer working for Life magazine, walked around the square photographing people kissing. He later recalled that he noticed a sailor who “rushed around the square and kissed indiscriminately all the women in a row: young and old, fat and thin. I watched, but there was no desire to take a photo. Suddenly he grabbed something white. I barely had time to raise the camera and take a photo of him kissing the nurse.” For millions of Americans, this photograph, which Eisenstadt called “Unconditional Surrender,” became a symbol of the end of World War II.