The photo of a dead three-year-old Syrian boy on a Turkish beach has become a symbol for Europe's refugee crisis. Here are more images that have changed the way we see human tragedies.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Images
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8 photos that shook the world
Just as the photo of a dead child has become a symbol for the millions of refugees now trying to escape suffering in their home countries, here are eight other iconic photos which became symbols of world politics.
Image: STAN HONDA/AFP/Getty Images
Napalm Girl
Frightened children run after a napalm bomb hit their village in South Vietnam. The naked nine-year-old-girl Phan Thi Kim Phuc survived by tearing off her burning clothes. She is still alive and now lives in Canada. The photo influenced the public opinion towards the Vietnam War. The photographer, Nick Ut, won the Pulitzer Prize for it in 1973.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Images
Dust Lady
Covered in dust, this woman is trying to escape the World Trade Center in New York City right after a plane struck the first tower on September 11, 2001. It became one of the defining images of the terrorist attack. Marcy Borders, who became known as the "Dust Lady," died on August 26, 2015 at age 42. She suffered from stomach cancer, which was an after-effect of the tragedy.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/AFP
Tank Man
On June 5, 1989, this man stopped a column of tanks by standing in front of them. Just a day before, the Chinese military had violently suppressed protests taking place on Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The identity and fate of this unknown protester were never reliably determined. He was taken away shortly after Jeff Widener photographed his exceptionally brave protest.
Image: Reuters/A. Tsang
Benno Ohnesorg's death
On June 2, 1967, the police violently clamped down on a protest against the state visit of the Shah of Iran. The German student Benno Ohnesorg was shot that day by a policeman. His death led to the radicalization of the left-wing movement in Germany in the late 1960s. Ohnesorg's wife was pregnant with his first child at the time.
Image: AP
John F. Kennedy's assassination
President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, on November 1963, while traveling in a presidential motorcade. Abraham Zapruder inadvertently captured the moment as he was filming the president passing by. Frame 313 shows the shot to the JFK's head, and Zapruder wanted it excluded from publication - yet every single frame of the famous film has been carefully analyzed since then.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Munich massacre
During the Olympic Games in Munich in 1972, 11 members of the Israeli Olympic team members were taken hostage - and later killed - by the terrorist Palestinian group Black September. This iconic picture shows one of the kidnappers looking down from a balcony.
Image: dapd
Afghan Girl
Steve McCurry's portrait covered the "National Geographic" in 1985. Even though it doesn't show the girl's life as a refugee in Pakistan, it became one of the most famous symbols of the Soviet occupation of her country and of the fate of refugees worldwide. The 12-year-old was unidentified until she was located again in 2002: Sharbat Gula had never seen her famous portrait before that.
Image: STAN HONDA/AFP/Getty Images
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From the Cold War to conflicts in the Middle East and the World Wars of the 20th century, photojournalists have imformed our views on global catastrophes and softened our hearts to sympathize with those who suffer.
The recent image of a three-year-old Syrian boy Aylan Kurdi, one of 12 refugees who died while traveling by boat from Turkey to Greece, gives Europe's refugee crisis a face.
As the world mourns Aylan Kurdi, DW looks back at other images which have shaken us out of our apathy and made historical events more than dry headlines.
