Icons: Where are they now? - Politics Forum.org | PoFo

Wandering the information superhighway, he came upon the last refuge of civilization, PoFo, the only forum on the internet ...

Those who do not remember the past are condemned to relive it. Note: nostalgia *is* allowed.
Forum rules: No one line posts please.
#1581557
Image

Name: Conrad Schumann
DOB: 28 March 1942
Nationality: East German
Iconic moment: spontaneously jumping to the West over the Berlin Wall he was guarding as it was being built. Symbol of Cold War.
Later years: Difficult relations with relatives he left behind in East Germany. Suffered from depression and hanged himself June 20th, 1998.


Image

Name: James Blake Miller
DOB: July 10, 1984
Nationality: American
Iconic moment: "Marlboro Marine", veteran of battle of Fallujah. Symbol of Iraq War.
Later years: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder sufferer, jobless, member of the Highwaymen biker gang, divorced, suicidal tendencies.

Image

Name: Phan Thi Kim Phúc
DOB: 1963
Nationality: Vietnamese-Canadian
Iconic moment: center of "Vietnam Napalm" photo, running and screaming while being burned alive. Symbol of Vietnam War.
Later years: used as peace symbol by North Vietnamese government, studies in Cuba, Canadian citizenship, some media attention including speaking of forgiveness on NPR and a photo op with her baby.

Image

Image

Name: Sharbat Gula
DOB: 1972
Nationality: Afghan
Iconic moment: "Afghan girl", surprise photo of her as a refugee, the most famous ever to be published by national geographic. Symbol of Afghan War.
Later years: Mother. found again at the age of 30 completely unaware of her fame, with the "prematurely destroyed face" of a hard life.
Image

Image
Name: Unknown
DOB: Unknown
Nationality: Chinese (PRC)
Iconic moment: "Tank Man" opposing Chinese tanks about to put down the pro-democracy protests of students in the Tiananmen Square Massacre. Symbol of Chinese democracy.
Later years: Unknown, if still alive.

Little photos become symbols of whole events, yet at the time we know little or nothing about the actual people involved. Having learned a bit about these people.. It's as though the photo, becoming an icon, lost its strength. The lives recall the genuine horror, and sometimes beauty, that lies behind the image.

Discuss.
User avatar
By Suska
#1581569
interesting. thanks for that.

individuals splintered like planks against the flying steel bar of history, as V said, ideas are bulletproof... my daoist notion would be to be very careful about big ideas especially when they are watching with cameras. on the other hand, this is the stuff of hearts singing.
User avatar
By Ombrageux
#1581693
I think a kind of innocence and incomprehension or non-relevance of the East-West struggle in Afghanistan (and of European civilization more broadly). This was the first time she'd even seen a camera, yet soon tanks and helicopters would be coming in to wreck the lives of people like her, in a struggle that had nothing to do with them.
User avatar
By Suska
#1581694
it appeared on the cover of national geographic and was i think also on the cover of a "greatest" nat-geo photo collection. i dont think anyone's weighted it much with some political or overt significance, unlike some of the other photos it isnt as easy to say what it means to us, but something along the lines of there are ethnicity issues, afghan woman with green eyes and a sharp look / shifting ideas about american imperialism / looking for the real human face of exotic places, (finding them not so strange(?)) ... do you ask because you dont think its significant? certainly i dont think symbolism must have an easy description/meaning. Even if you haven't seen it I can tell you it impressed me a lot with much of the meaning I'm trying to explain here and judging by its public reception many people saw in it what i did.
User avatar
By Nets
#1581722
DumbTeen I really enjoyed this post.

Thanks for posting.

I'd like to add one to your list. This is probably the most iconic image in Israeli history:

Image

From left to right:

Source wrote:Born in Tiberias, Zion Karasenti, 64, fought at Ammunition Hill in the advance on East Jerusalem. He is a director and choreographer and lives in Afula

Yitzak Yifat, 64, is an obstetrics and gynaecology surgeon. He was 24, and living in Tel Aviv, when the war broke out. He was involved in the battle for Ammunition Hill and the conquest of East Jerusalem

Born in Yemen in 1944, Haim Oshri emigrated to Israel in 1949 and finished military service in 1965. In the battle for Jerusalem's Ammunition Hill, his paratrooper regiment lost 37 out of 150 soldiers. An Orthodox Jew, he feels the conquest of Jerusalem had a religious significance and that the Old City should remain part of Israel in the event of a peace agreement



Here are some interesting articles on the three in the photo, then and now:
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/06/ ... -Photo.php
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/magazine ... e_continue
User avatar
By Pleb
#1581729
Image

Faris Odeh was a Palestinian boy shot dead by Israeli military forces near the Karni crossing in the Gaza Strip while throwing stones in the second month of the Al-Aqsa Intifada.

A picture of Odeh standing alone in front a tank, with a stone in his hand and arm bent back to throw was taken by a photojournalist from the Associated Press on October 29, 2000. Ten days later, on November 9, Odeh was again throwing stones at Karni when he was shot in the neck by Israeli troops. Odeh and the now famous image of him have since become symbols of what some Palestinians regard as resistance to occupation.
User avatar
By Nets
#1581737
Pleb, very complementary (if not complimentary) to my post. It seems the fate of these peoples is bound up together, even in unrelated internet threads.

Also, could you source the info you cited?
User avatar
By Pleb
#1581762
;)

The two pictures go hand in hand. The troops at the wall are lionised. You have to look up at them while they look at something greater. It's humbling and for better or worse, it's the end of the Jewish underdog.

The Palestinian child is David now. He throws rocks at a tank. Regardless of your politics, there's enough balls there for a hero

And there went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span.
And he had a helmet of brass upon his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail; and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of brass.
And he had greaves of brass upon his legs and a buckler of brass between his shoulders.
And the staff of his spear was like a weaver's beam, and his spear's head weighed six hundred shekels of iron; and one bearing a shield went before him.
And he stood and cried unto the armies of Israel and said unto them, "Why have ye come out to set up in battle array? Am not I a Philistine, and ye servants to Saul? Choose you a man for you, and let him come down to me.
If he be able to fight with me and to kill me, then will we be your servants; but if I prevail against him and kill him, then shall ye be our servants and serve us."


There's a nice wikipedia article here.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faris_Odeh
User avatar
By Donna
#1581801
V-J Day kiss

Image

Image

Glenn McDuffie and Edith Shain

Symbolizes: The soon-to-be baby boomer generation
By Dempsey
#1581907
Image

“The Kiss by the Hôtel de Ville,” taken in Paris in 1950. (Photo: Robert Doisneau)

Another famous image of a kiss is Robert Doisneau’s “The Kiss by the Hôtel de Ville,” taken on a Parisian street in 1950. Alas, the image — considered one of the most romantic ever taken and widely reproduced since 1986, when it was first printed as a poster — has a less happy story. As Hélène Fouquet reported, in 1993, a former actress, Françoise Bornet, emerged from anonymity when she sued Doisneau for $18,000 and a share of the royalty in the image. The case was dismissed, but during the proceedings Doisneau revealed that the scene had been staged. Doisneau died in 1994. Ms. Bornet sold her original print of the photograph for $242,000 at an auction; the rights remained with Doisneau’s agency.

Image

Françoise Bornet, in 2005, with a print of the Doisneau photograph in which she appears. (Photo: Eric Feferberg/Getty Images)
User avatar
By Ombrageux
#1582379
On Palestine: I was also thinking of that pic of the dad protecting his son under gunfire, but I couldn't find it.
User avatar
By Potemkin
#1582403
On Palestine: I was also thinking of that pic of the dad protecting his son under gunfire, but I couldn't find it.

No doubt because of a Zionist conspiracy to erase them from history. ;)
User avatar
By Oxymoron
#1582412
Regardless of your politics, there's enough balls there for a hero


That would only be true if he wasnt a Kid who doesnt understand the concept of mortality and who was brainwashed that being a martyr is a great accomplishement.
User avatar
By Ombrageux
#1582416
Ox, how is that sort of futile resistance leading to death any different from say the Alamo or the White Rose? (Or the chap at Tiananmen?)

I mean this specific photo, of a basically harmless kid, not the ones strapped with dynamite.
User avatar
By Pleb
#1582453
That would only be true if he wasnt a Kid who doesnt understand the concept of mortality and who was brainwashed that being a martyr is a great accomplishement.


Brainwashed he might have been, but you're nobody to lecture anyone on morality. The kid fought a motherfucking tank. With nothing but stones and a pair of balls.

Jesus.

The picture of the father huddling the child is Muhammad al-Durrah, another victim of the birth lottery. I didn't think he was applicable here though. The picture comes with far too much baggage, there's no consensus on how he died. And that's what's most important here. Blame.
User avatar
By Oxymoron
#1582462
Alamo or the White Rose? (Or the chap at Tiananmen?)


They were grown man and they knew and valued what they were risking.
User avatar
By Nets
#1582485
Ox, how is that sort of futile resistance leading to death any different from say the Alamo or the White Rose? (Or the chap at Tiananmen?)

I mean this specific photo, of a basically harmless kid, not the ones strapped with dynamite.


I think the difference Oxy is drawing is between that of children and adults.

The picture of the father huddling the child is Muhammad al-Durrah, another victim of the birth lottery. I didn't think he was applicable here though. The picture comes with far too much baggage, there's no consensus on how he died. And that's what's most important here. Blame.


I've yet to come to a conclusion on that issue. I think it was staged but who knows.

We should try to get this thread back on topic though it was a great thread. I should have known I'd be opening a can of worms.
User avatar
By Suska
#1582486
youre splitting hairs and your bias is obvious Oxy.

Isn't oil and electricity bought and sold like ev[…]

@Potemkin I heard this song in the Plaza Grande […]

Russia-Ukraine War 2022

The "Russian empire" story line is inve[…]

I (still) have a dream

Even with those millions though. I will not be ab[…]