I showed this photo to my college students this morning as part of a discussion of iconic images...

[Hissyspit]

And two hours later I started crying.

I don't cry often. I've shown it many times before. Just, some days...



New Orleans after Katrina.

[gateley]

1. I'm ashamed to admit I don't recognize this,

but it makes my heart hurt.

[Hissyspit]

2. It's Katrina.

You shouldn't be ashamed. My point to them was that this photo, which SHOULD be iconic, isn't. And we know why, too.

[Sekhmets Daughter]

7. This would be a great topic for the

Melissa Harris-Perry show. You should contact her.

[gateley]

13. Thanks, Hissy.

[msanthrope]

3. Katrina. nt

[Sekhmets Daughter]

4. I don't either :-(

[Hissyspit]

6. See post #2.

[HangOnKids]

5. Katrina n/t

[Taverner]

8. Somehow THIS is iconic...

Despite this:



And that Katrina pic is not....

[BanzaiBonnie]

10. That's not iconic because it's a staged photo op

Many of us understood exactly what it was when we saw wit.

[Taverner]

11. It's not iconic to us because we know better

But the American public at large don't know it was staged

[catbyte]

14. That doesn't always matter, BanzaiBonnie

Perhaps the most iconic American photograph of the last 60 years--Marines raising the flag on Mt. Suribachi on Iwo Jima during WWII--was staged. The actual flag raising had occurred a few hours before. My dad was there. At least it was the staging of an actual event, though.

[Spider Jerusalem]

18. So was the flag-raising on Iwo Jima

[myrna minx]

9. There's another image that sill haunts me to this day.

The photo is of a woman sharing bottled water with I believe her dog (or kitty), while they're stuck stuck on a bridge as a lifeless body is floating nearby. It's soul shattering.

[Soylent Brice]

12. .

[deaniac21]

15. This is truly iconic

[link:|

[Hissyspit]

17. I show these two next to each other.

And discuss similarity and difference. In addition, I give them the back stories and discuss what became of the people associated with the photographs (including the photographers).

[Raster]

16. heck-of-a-job, Brownie!

Ah, the cheney*/bush* years... the merits of torture debated in Congress and a major American city allowed to drown.

[slampoet]

19. Notice the oil in the water

Oil from the petroleum companies that stole the oil w/o paying Louisiana anything and thus making them paupers with no decent levies.