I recently visited Aarhus, Denmark. As I entered the botanic gardens, I saw a big poster on a kiosk. The poster has on it the famous photo of a South Vietnamese general shooting a prisoner in the head. I don’t read Danish, so I could not determine why the poster had that image. It is a hard one to forget.  

That photo was one of two photos that helped end the Vietnam War. The other photo was of a Vietnamese girl running naked after being napalmed. Despite being seriously burned by the firebomb, the girl survived. She later moved to Canada and became a motivational speaker. She still has extensive burn scars.

More recent photographs have also had great impact. Did you see the 1993 photo of the starving African child with a vulture waiting a few steps away? I donate money to starving children in part because of that image.

Remember the image of the dead refugee boy who washed up on the south of Europe a few years ago?  After the publication of that photo, European countries opened their borders to refugees, at least for a while. 

Not all powerful photos show tragedies.  

Think of the famous still image, from video, of a man standing on the moon. That image shows the intellectual and technological potential of humans. The image and what it represents helped prompt a number of young people to become scientists.

I have never taken an iconic photograph, but I did once get a photograph published. An article I wrote was accepted for publication by a scientific journal. That happy event has happened to me many times. This was the only time though that I was asked to provide the journal with a photo related to the study. In this case the study showed the risk of a halo effect when instructors mark the work of a student they know.

My photo idea was for an image of a student in class looking as if he or she adored the instructor. Because none of my students ever look adoringly at me, I staged the scene with a research assistant. I then had my daughter add a halo to the photo of the “student.” The result was good, if I do say so myself.  

What is the best photograph you have ever taken? What story does it tell? When was the last time you showed it to someone?