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Most powerfull photographs


Sisters pose for the same photo three separate times, years apart.


A Russian war veteran kneels beside the tank he spent the war in, now a monument.

A Romanian child hands a heart-shaped balloon to riot police during protests against austerity measures in Bucharest.


Retired Philadelphia Police Captain Ray Lewis is arrested for participating in the Occupy Wall Street protests in 2011.

A monk prays for an elderly man who had died suddenly while waiting for a train in Shanxi Taiyuan, China.

A dog named “Leao” sits for a second consecutive day at the grave of her owner, who died in the disastrous landslides near Rio de Janiero on January 15, 2011.

The 1968 Olympics Black Power Salute: African American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos raise their fists in a gesture of solidarity at the 1968 Olympic games. Australian Silver medalist Peter Norman wore an Olympic Project for Human Rights badge in support of their protest. Both Americans were expelled from the games as a result.

Jewish prisoners at the moment of their liberation from an internment camp “death train” near the Elbe in 1945.

John F. Kennedy Jr. salutes his father’s coffin along with the honor guard.

Christians protect Muslims during prayer in the midst of the uprisings in Cairo, Egypt, in 2011.

A North Korean man waves his hand as a South Korean relative weeps, following a luncheon meeting during inter-Korean temporary family reunions at Mount Kumgang resort October 31, 2010. Four hundred and thirty-six South Koreans were allowed to spend three days in North Korea to meet their 97 North Korean relatives, whom they had been separated from since the 1950-53 war.

A dog is reunited with his owner following the tsunami in Japan in 2011.


“Wait For Me Daddy,” by Claude P. Dettloff, October 1, 1940: A line of soldiers march in British Columbia on their way to a waiting train as five-year-old Whitey Bernard tugs away from his mother’s hand to reach out for his father.

Navy chaplain Luis Padillo gives last rites to a soldier wounded by sniper fire during a revolt in Venezuela.


Australian Scott Jones kisses his Canadian girlfriend Alex Thomas after she was knocked to the ground by a police officer’s riot shield in Vancouver, British Columbia. Canadians rioted after the Vancouver Canucks lost the Stanley Cup to the Boston Bruins.

A mother comforts her son in Concord, Alabama, near his house which was completely destroyed by a tornado in April of 2011.

Pearl Harbor survivor Houston James of Dallas is overcome with emotion as he embraces Marine Staff Sgt. Mark Graunke Jr. during the Dallas Veterans Day Commemoration at Dallas City Hall in 2005. Sgt Graunke, who was a member of a Marine ordnance-disposal team, lost a hand, leg, and eye while defusing a bomb in Iraq in July of 2004.

Phyllis Siegel, 76, left, and Connie Kopelov, 84, both of New York, embrace after becoming the first same-sex couple to get married at the Manhattan City Clerk’s office in 2011.

A 4-month-old baby girl in a pink bear suit is miraculously rescued from the rubble by soldiers after four days missing following the Japanese tsunami.


A French civilian cries in despair as Nazis occupy Paris during World War II.

PoW Horace Greasley defiantly confronts Heinrich Himmler during an inspection of the camp he was confined in. Greasley also famously escaped from the camp and snuck back in more than 200 times to meet in secret with a local German girl he had fallen in love with.

A firefighter gives water to a koala during the devastating Black Saturday bushfires that burned across Victoria, Australia, in 2009.

Robert Peraza pauses at his son’s name on the 9/11 Memorial during the tenth anniversary ceremonies at the site of the World Trade Center.

Jacqueline Kennedy wears her pink Chanel suit, still stained with the blood of her husband, as Lyndon Johnson takes the oath of office in Air Force One.

According to Lady Bird Johnson, who was also present:

“Her hair [was] falling in her face but [she was] very composed … I looked at her. Mrs. Kennedy’s dress was stained with blood. One leg was almost entirely covered with it and her right glove was caked, it was caked with blood – her husband’s blood. Somehow that was one of the most poignant sights – that immaculate woman, exquisitely dressed, and caked in blood.”

Tanisha Blevin, 5, holds the hand of fellow Hurricane Katrina victim Nita LaGarde, 105, as they are evacuated from the convention center in New Orleans.

A girl in isolation for radiation screening looks at her dog through a window in Nihonmatsu, Japan on March 14.

Journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling, who had been arrested in North Korea and sentenced to 12 years hard labor, are reunited with their families in California after a successful diplomatic intervention by the U.S.


Terri Gurrola is reunited with her daughter after serving in Iraq for 7 months.


“La Jeune Fille a la Fleur,” a photograph by Marc Riboud, shows the young pacifist Jane Rose Kasmir planting a flower on the bayonets of guards at the Pentagon during a protest against the Vietnam War on October 21, 1967. The photograph would eventually become the symbol of the flower power movement.

The iconic photo of Tank Man, the unknown rebel who stood in front of a column of Chinese tanks in an act of defiance following the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.


Another, recently unearthed photo of the Tank Man incident, which shows a new angle of his act of protest, now at a distance. Tank Man can be seen through the trees on the left, and the tanks can be seen on the far right.

Harold Whittles hears for the first time ever after a doctor places an earpiece in his left ear.


Helen Fisher kisses the hearse carrying the body of her 20-year-old cousin, Private Douglas Halliday, as he and six other fallen soldiers are brought through the town of Wootton Bassett in England.

U.S. Army troops wade ashore during the D-Day Normandy landings on June 6, 1944.


A German World War II prisoner, released by the Soviet Union, is reunited with his daughter. The child had not seen her father since she was one year old.


Eight-year-old Christian Golczynski accepts the flag for his father, Marine Staff Sgt. Marc Golczynski, during a memorial service. Marc Golczynski was shot on patrol during his second tour in Iraq (which he had volunteered for) just a few weeks before he was due to return home.


Pele and British captain Bobby Moore trade jerseys in 1970 as a sign of mutual respect during a World Cup that had been marred by racism.

A Sudan People’s Liberation Army soldier stands at attention on the eve of South Sudan’s independence from Sudan.

Greg Cook hugs his dog Coco after finding her inside his destroyed home in Alabama following the Tornado in March, 2012.

Earthrise: A photo taken by astronaut William Anders during the Apollo 8 mission in 1968.

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Amazing Graveyard

 
 

10 Amazing Object Graveyards

 
Have you ever wondered what happens to decommissioned machines and other similar facilities that people once used? Some of these objects are being recycled, and many of them are piling up on the so-called Object Graveyards and there waiting to be completely eaten by the ravages of time. Places of natural decomposition of such objects can be unusual tourist destinations and sites to capture amazing photos.
 
1. Aircraft Boneyard, USA
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The 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group (AMARG), often called The Boneyard is located near Davis Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson,  Arizona. For those of you that have never seen it, it’s difficult to comprehend the size of it.

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The number of aircraft stored there and the precision in the way they are parked is impressive. Another important fact is that they are all capable of being returned to service if the need ever arises.

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AMARG is a controlled-access site, and is off-limits to anyone not employed there without the proper clearance. The only access for non-cleared individuals is via a bus tour which is conducted by the nearby Pima Air & Space Museum. Bus tours are Monday through Friday only. Both the museum and the Bone Yard are very popular attractions in the Arizona desert. [link1, link2, map]

 

2. Ship Graveyard, Mauritania

The city of Nouadhibou is the second largest city in Mauritania and serves as the country’s commercial center. It is famous for being the location of one of the largest ship graveyard in the world. Hundreds of rusting ships can be seen all around, in the water, and on beaches.
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One of the most commonly read explanation for that situation is that Mauritanian harbor officers were taking bribes and allowing ships to be discarded in the harbor and around the bay. This phenomenon started in the 80’s after the nationalization of the Mauritanian fishing industry, numerous uneconomical ships were simply abandoned there.

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The city of Nouadhibou is one of the poorest locations in the world. Right over these phantom beaches there are people living inside the huge merchant boats. [link, map]

3. Train Cemetery, Bolivia

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One of the major tourist attractions of southwestern Bolivia is an antique train cemetery. It is located 3 km (1.9 mi) outside Uyuni and is connected to it by the old train tracks. The town served in the past as a distribution hub for the trains carrying minerals on their way to the Pacific Ocean ports.

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The train lines were built by British engineers who arrived near the end of the 19th century and formed a sizable community in Uyuni. The rail construction started in 1888 and ended in 1892.

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The trains were mostly used by the mining companies. In the 1940s, the mining industry collapsed, partly due to the mineral depletion. Many trains were abandoned thereby producing the train cemetery. There are talks to build a museum out of the cemetery. [link, map]

4. Vozdvizhenka Aircraft Graveyard, Russia

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Littered with at least 18 gutted Tupolev Tu-22M Backfires of the 444th Heavy Bomber Regiment, Vozdvizhenka air base resembles a post-apocalyptic landscape. Entering this barren place, located near Ussuriysk in the Primorsky Krai region of Far East Russia, 60 miles (95 km) north of Vladivostok and 40 miles (65 km) from the Chinese border, is like taking a step back in time.

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The 444th Regiment was disbanded in 2009, with some aircraft transferred to the Belaya air base, and others dismantled (removed engines, equipment, and with holes cut in the fuselage).

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The aircraft carcasses are awaiting final metal cutting. Currently based at the airfield is the aviation commandant of Khurba airbase and the 322 Aircraft Repair Factory. [link1, link2, map]

5. Anchor Graveyard, Portugal

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Among the dunes of Tavira island, in Portugal, there’s an impressive anchor graveyard called the Cemitério das Âncoras. It was built in remembrence of the glorious tradition of tuna fishing with large nets fixed with these anchors, a fishing technique already invented by the Phoenicians.

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Tavira used to be a place devoted to the tuna fishing. They built up this anchor graveyard to remember those who had to quit their occupation when the big fish abandoned the coasts. [link, map]

6. Soviet Tank Graveyard, Afghanistan

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On the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan there’s a massive collection of abandoned Soviet battle vehicles left behind after the failure of a massive eastern bloc military occupation of the country in the 1970’s and 1980’s.

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The Soviets left in a hurry and couldn’t be bothered to find a way to get broken-down tanks back home, so now they sit, partially stripped and covered in graffiti.

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Afghanistan has few recycling facilities, so this cemetery of tanks will likely remain where it is for many more years as a reminder of the Russian invasion. [link, map]

7. Submarine Graveyard, Russia

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The area around Nezametnaya Cove, close to the town of Gadzhiyevo, in Murmansk Oblast on the Kola Peninsula, is a cemetery where is located a lot of old Russian submarines. After serving their duty underwater, the submarines were brought to this restricted-access zone in the 1970s and then forgotten.

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Locals said that some of the old submarines were used for target practice in military exercises and often sunk, an employment of the old “out of sight, out of mind” strategy. Others were simply left in the bay to rust and rot, floating to the surface like so many whale carcasses. [link, map]

8. Moynaq Ship Graveyard, Uzbekistan

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Moynaq is a city in northern Karakalpakstan in western Uzbekistan. Home to only a few thousand residents at most, Moynoq’s population has been declining precipitously since the 1980s due to the recession of the Aral Sea.

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Once a bustling fishing community and Uzbekistan’s only port city with tens of thousands of residents, Moynoq is now a shadow of its former self, dozens of kilometers from the rapidly receding shoreline of the Aral Sea.

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For travellers the main reason to visit Moynaq is to see the ship graveyard, a collection of rusting hulks that were once the town’s fishing fleet. It’s an image that perfectly illustrates the disaster – once proud vessels beached in a sandy desert.

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Unfortunately there aren’t many left, as scrap metal companies made short work of them before the tourism authorities forbade it. In one final kick for a local population already downed, the money didn’t go to the people who owned the boats; it was divided up between the scrap companies and government officials. [link1, link2, map]

 

9. Taxi Graveyard, China

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Thousands of scrapped taxis are abandoned in a yard in the center of Chongqing, China. Traffic congestion and pollution have worsened dramatically in Chinese cities because the country’s long-running economic expansion has allowed increasing numbers of consumers to make big-ticket purchases such as cars, which means many no longer have to rely on taxis or public transportation. [link]

10. Phone Booth Graveyard, UK

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This phone booth graveyard is located between Ripon and Thirsk, near the village of Carlton Miniott, UK. There are located hundreds of disused telephone booths.

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Decommissioned old red booths are systematically replaced by new modern booths, and deposited in one site near this English village.