Unforgettable Photographs of the 20th Century: Immortal Images of Social & Historical Significance

Introduction
The invention of the photograph was so much more than a mere technological innovation.  It enabled the human species to graphically document their own existence while simultaneously allowing photographers the unique ability to express themselves in a manner that forced the viewer to experience their perspective.  This kind of multi-faceted engagement with the viewer created a level of intellectual stimulation, and often provocation, as well as emotional stimulation, and sometimes manipulation, that carried with it the power to shape our perception of individuals and events.  Lives were forever captured on film and preserved.  Occurrences were frozen in time for all the world to see and to study.  And ideas were proliferated through print.

Indeed, it’s said that a picture is worth a thousand words, maybe even more depending on the picture, but more importantly, what words and how they are expressed is ultimately what determines their effect on us.  Whether a photo accurately reflects its subject matter is largely dependent on the context in which we see it and how the image is in turn stored in our memories.  Equally important is the intent of its author, the photographer, and how the photo is treated after its taken, whether its colours are heightened or muted, or whether the image had been cropped.  Each alteration to the image can reveal so much about both the photographer’s own mindset and what they want viewers to see.

Collected here are some of the most iconic and socially significant photographs of the 20th Century and the stories behind them.  While I am sharing these primarily with the intention of education, some of these images are graphic and may be considered disturbing, so view them at your own discretion.

Censorship: Voices Against Suppression

If we do not have freedom to speak to one another and to listen to one another, then we do not have the freedom to learn, and if we are prohibited from expressing the very thoughts we think or the emotions we feel, then our very minds are being prohibited.  The dangers of censorship are very simple:  it is a violation of our freedoms to simply acknowledge our existence.  Censorship is the first step leading down into the prison cell of oppression and tyranny.  It is for this reason that I have gathered the following quotes on censorship, oppression, and the importance of free speech, taken from many different great minds from many different eras.

The First Amendment to the United States’ Bill of Rights guarantees all citizens the right to practice the religion of their choice or to choose not to, to protect freedom of the press, and ensure that citizens can gather collectively in safety to voice political dissent.

 

“Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?  (translation: Who will guard the guardsmen?, alternate translation: Who will watch the watchmen?)”
– Juvenal

“If all printers were determined not to print anything ’til they were sure it would offend nobody, there would be very little printed.”
–  Benjamin Franklin

“To limit the press is to insult a nation;  to prohibit reading of certain books is to declare the inhabitants to be either fools or slaves:  such a prohibition ought to fill them with disdain.”
–  Claude Adrien Helvétius

“Men are not admitted into Heaven because they have curbed or governed their passions, but because they have cultivated their understandings.  The treasures of Heaven are not negations of passion, but realities of intellect, from which all the passions emanate un-curbed in their eternal glory.  The fool shall not enter into Heaven let him be ever so holy.”
– William Blake

“Censorship is telling a man he can’t have a steak just because a baby can’t chew it.”
– Mark Twain

“I maintain my right to die as I have lived – a free woman, not cowed into silence by any other human being.”
– Ida Craddock

“All censorships exist to prevent anyone from challenging current conceptions and existing institutions.  All progress is initiated by challenging current conceptions, and executed by supplanting existing institutions.  Consequently, the first condition of progress is the removal of censorship.”
– George Bernard Shaw

“I disapprove of what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.”
– Evelyn Beatrice Hall

“All the papers that matter live off their advertisements, and the advertisers exercise an indirect censorship over news.”
– George Orwell

“Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.”
– Harry S. Truman

“Don’t join the book burners.  Don’t think you’re going to conceal faults by concealing evidence that they ever existed.  Don’t be afraid to go in your library and read every book…”
– Dwight D. Eisenhower

“You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture.  Just get people to stop reading them.”
– Ray Bradbury

“If this nation is to be wise as well as strong, if we are to achieve our destiny, then we need more new ideas for more wise men reading more good books in more public libraries.  These libraries should be open to all — except the censor.  We must know all the facts and hear all the alternatives and listen to all the criticisms.  Let us welcome controversial books and controversial authors.  For the Bill of Rights is the guardian of our security as well as our liberty.”
– John F. Kennedy

“If you can’t say ‘fuck’, then you can’t say, ‘Fuck the government.’”
– Lenny Bruce

“All these people talk so eloquently about getting back to good old-fashioned values.  Well, as an old poop I can remember back to when we had those old-fashioned values, and I say let’s get back to the good old-fashioned First Amendment of the good old-fashioned Constitution of the United States – and to hell with the censors!  Give me knowledge or give me death!”
– Kurt Vonnegut

“The only valid censorship of ideas is the right of people not to listen.”
– Tommy Smothers

“In this age of censorship, I mourn the loss of books that will never be written, I mourn the voices that will be silenced-writers’ voices, teachers’ voices, students’ voices – and all because of fear.”
– Judy Blume

“All of us can think of a book…  that we hope none of our children or any other children have taken off the shelf.  But if I have the right to remove that book from the shelf – that work I abhor – then you also have exactly the same right and so does everyone else.  And then we have no books left on the shelf for any of us.”
–  Katherine Paterson

“Censorship is to art as lynching is to justice.”
– Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

“Why did they devise censorship?  To show a world which doesn’t exist, an ideal world, or what they envisaged as the ideal world.  And we wanted to depict the world as it was.”
– Krzysztof Kieślowski

“There is no such thing as a dirty word.  Nor is there a word so powerful, that it’s going to send the listener to the lake of fire upon hearing it.”
– Frank Zappa

Censorship: A Necessary Evil or a Weapon Against Dissent? Part III

Controversial Masterpieces: Censorship Of Classical Art From The Renaissance Through The 19th Century
Whether the church’s chiseling the genitalia off of ancient statues or painting over blasphemous elements in a mural, art has been a contested territory, and there has been a long history of suppressing art that challenged the social mores of its day or expressed ideas deemed as obscene or heretical.  Perhaps because art existed before the written word, before most other physical mediums of expression, it could be argued that art was the first form of communication outside of verbal speech to be censored.  In the world of art, censorship often takes on three forms, either a work of art is expurgated (altered to exclude content that may offend), removed from public view, or destroyed altogether. The latter is rare since most cultures around the world hold art in high esteem and don’t wish to see its destruction regardless of its perceived objectionable qualities.  Expurgation or obscurement has been more common.

Censorship: A Necessary Evil or a Weapon Against Dissent? Part I

Introduction
Even in its most benign form, the practice of censorship is an undeniable violation of a human being’s inherent right to express his or herself, and any policy which allows for censorship is detrimental to the foundation of a progressive society.  Generally, censorship has been utilized by organizations (be they political, religious, commercial, or social in origin) as a way to suppress unpopular ideas, opinions, or viewpoints, particularly if they suggest a dissenting perspective.  While many people may associate censorship with foreign dictatorships or the corporate media, the issue is far more expansive and pervasive.  Indeed, censorship has prevented the exchange of information for many, many centuries and its history is arguably as old as our own.

At its core, censorship is a way to restrict people from self-expression and limit their exposure to ideas.  By controlling the public’s awareness of and access to certain information outlets that may be deemed controversial or subversive, authoritarian powers are able to place a stranglehold on the collective perception of a community.  Often the application of censorship is accompanied by the use of propaganda, disinformation, or materials with which opinions can be swayed in favor of one party or against another.  While these techniques are nothing new, the methods of enforcing them have greatly evolved over the centuries as technological advancement has occurred.

In today’s world, censorship is so common (as is the use of propaganda and disinformation) that the average citizen of most highly populated countries is likely to be affected by it in some manner on an almost daily basis.  As such, paranoia regarding the media has also become common.  While questioning the validity and integrity of information and its source is necessary in the world’s modern sociopolitical arena, mistaking editorialization with censorship has become an increasingly frequent problem that tends to exacerbate hostilities between people of opposing viewpoints.  To prevent unnecessary debate and conflict, it is then necessary to create crystalline definitions that lay down the extent to which free speech can be limited, altered, or discouraged altogether.  Below are definitions of censorship, editorialization, propaganda, and disinformation taken from the dictionary.

censorship
cen•sor•ship (sen´sər ship) n.
1. the act of censoring
2. the work of or position of a censor
3. the examination and prohibition of materials deemed to be objectionable

editorialization
ed•i•to•ri•al•ize (ed´ə tô ré əl ĭzā´shən) n.
1. to express editorial opinions on a given topic
2. to place editorial information into a written article
3. to present what is considered by an editor to be relevant content while omitting any content considered irrelevant or inappropriate

propaganda
prop•a•gan•da (präp é gan´da) n.
1. any system of which is used to promote or disseminate certain ideas, doctrines, practices, or people
2. any material used for the sole purpose of proselytizing an individual and/or group of individuals in a concerted effort of converting them to a specific viewpoint or to adopt a particular set of beliefs

disinformation
dis•in•for•ma•tion (dis in´fər mā´shən) n.
erroneous or inaccurate information intentionally and often covertly spread in an attempt to divert or distract people from the truth

What’s interesting about these definitions is how purposefully vague they are.  It’s clear that on a person-to-person basis, the way that censorship, editorialization, propaganda, and disinformation are perceived will vary from one person to the next, thus causing these words to be defined as much by our own perspectives as by their very nature.  Failing to establish a definitive, universal set of guidelines as to what constitutes these acts may at first appear unhelpful, but in their subtle ambiguity we can also find the very freedom that these acts negate.  To truly understand these concepts, one must look not to their definitions (as these metamorphose and evolve over time), but rather seek out their meanings through the history of their existence.  In the following essay, I shall attempt to illuminate said history and provide readers with the information needed to form their own philosophical stance on the matter.