The 100 Photographs that Changed the World
Updated: Nov 13, 2024
Margherita Giacosa
The 100 Photographs That Changed the World edited by Margherita Giacosa, Roberta Mottadelli and Gianni Morelli is a great overview of photographs from 1869 to 2015 that had an impact in the world. They describe it in their intro as, “not a history of photography, but a volume of photographs of history” (Guarnieri, 11). Most of the photographs are from wars, assassinations, protests and other traumatic events. Each picture includes the name of the photograph, the month and year it was taken and then the name of the photographer if it is known. Many of the images within the book are anonymous photographers. Each image is blown up to a nice size taking up at least one of the pages with the other page being a description of the events around the image and why it was so impactful. There are a handful of images that had 2 pages of information and then the picture was blown up to fill the next two pages. This is a great resource for someone who would want to see the impact that photography had in political science because of all the war photography and world events included. The title page and title verso page in the book do not list a year, but according to the Wheaton Public Library record it was published in 2016 (considering the last image included is from 2015 that makes sense). They organized it in chronological order and include photographs from major events all over the world: United States, Ireland, Iran, France, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Canada, Antarctica, Belgium, Russia, Egypt, India, Spain, Germany, Poland, Japan, Palestine, China, Nepal, Cuba, South Vietnam, Israel, Czechoslovakia, Mexico, Cambodia, South Africa, Kuwait, Italy, Sudan, Albania, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Myanmar, Yemen, Bosnia, Norway, Greece and even the Moon and Mars. The include a table on contents and in the back there is a little blurb of the photographers in the book. This would qualify as a historical timeline of photographs that made a significant impact. This is definitely for mature audiences; older highschoolers and up as the nature of some of the images are disturbing. This was a book I found in my public library catalog.
