Monday, April 7, 2014

10 Controversial Pictures

Original source : http://www.smashinglists.com
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According to Wikipedia a controversy is a state of prolonged public dispute or debate, usually concerning a matter of opinion. The word was coined from the Latin controversia, as a composite of controversus – ‘turned in an opposite direction,’ from contra – ‘against’ – and vertere – to turn. A controversy can literally arise about anything really, history, religion, philosophy, politics, science, gender, people, age and race etc. This particular list however, talks about ten different controversial pictures from around the world. Ever since the camera was invented, such controversies arose from all parts of the world.

10. The Lost Tucker
The 1948 Tucker sedan was developed by Preston Tucker. Only 51 of these were produced before the business shut down. The sedan was built for safety with an innovative design. The Tucker Corporation was ridiculed by the American media. A Tuicker sedan was featured in a show called ‘It’s Worth What?’ and the estimate it received was $1,120,000. A man named Justin Cole owns a Tucker Sedan and the bid for it on eBay reached as high as $900,000. The question is, is it actually the prototype or is he just bluffing?

9. Sowoneul Malhaebwa (Genie) Cover
There is a pop girl band in South Korea consisting of nine girls. It was formed in the year 2007. Currently, they are the top selling Korean girl band in the world. They took a controversial photoshoot in the year 2009 and one of the pictures was selected as the cover of their mini-album featured above. A plane can be seen in the picture. People felt that that plane was a replica of Japan’s A6M Zero fighter plane that was used by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service in the Second World War. Many military outfits, medals and hats were worn by the girls that resembled that of the Third Reich.

8. Thomas Hoepker's 9/11 Photo
This guy is a German born photographer. He was in New York when the WTCs were attacked. He captured many pictures of that sad incident but this particular one stands out. The picture shows some Americans relaxing and enjoying a conversation while there is smoke rising from the WTCs. Hoepker did not publish this image for five years afraid of the message that this picture sends. After the public release, the picture caused a lot of controversy in the American media and I am sure you can understand why.

7. Sochi Six
US and Soviet Union collected many German secrets after the WWII. That information also included the German rocket program. That particular technology sparked the space race between the US and the Soviet Union. This particular picture shows the top members of the original class of Soviet cosmonauts. There seems to be a lot of airbrushing. A lot of controversies surrounding the picture claim that there was a secret space mission by Soviet Union that failed. This picture is of the people who were probably on that secret space mission.

6. Samar Hassan
In 2005, Chris Hondros traveled to Iraq in order to cover the war. He saw a car there that did not stop at the checkpoint so the US soldiers opened fire. They killed both the parents and one of the five children. Hondros approached the scene and took a picture of Samar Hassan. She was five years old and was spattered in the blood of her parents. Once released to the public, this picture caused a major controversy across the world. In 2011, Samar saw the picture for the first time and she was interviewed about it. Details can be found online.

5. Mary Moorman JFK Picture
A witness to the assassination of U.S. President J. F. Kennedy was Mary Ann Moorman. Her photograph that was taken just a second after he was shot is what made her famous. Moorman was standing about 5 meters away. It is said that the picture was taken 1/6th of a second after he was shot. The original photo was confiscated by FBI but in 2008 she sold it on eBay for $175,000. I wonder how she was able to snap after hearing a gun shot or maybe she pressed the button after being startled by the shot. Maybe it was by accident, who knows.

4. 7/7 London Bombings
A series of bombs was exploded aboard London Underground trains by four Islamist terrorists. That happened on the morning of 7th July in the year 2005. The names of the bombers were Muhammad Sidique Khan, Shehzad Tanweer, Germaine Lindsay and Hasib Hussain. The CCTV cameras recorded the group while they were entering the station. On September 1st in the same year, al-Qaeda took responsibility for the attacks. This particular picture is the only one available of the four people and as you can see, the railing appears to be moved over the man’s arm and the crossbars do not line up. The person featured on the right has no clear face and a very skinny left leg. Three of the four terrorist faces are unidentifiable.

3. Piss Christ
Andres Serrano was considered notorious for using feces, corpses and bodily fluids in his work. He was an American photographer. He was raised in a Roman Catholic family. In 1987, he created a photograph called ‘Piss Christ’. In the image, a crucifix is submerged in the artist’s urine. He received $15,000 for the picture. The picture was displayed in 1989 and was the cause of an immense scandal. People blamed the US government and the artists received several death threats.

2. Depiction Of Muhammad
This is not a single picture rather these are different depictions of Muhammad. The pictures were published by a Danish newspaper. They published twelve cartoons depicting Muhammad in different situations. These pictures resulted in Islamic protests all across the Muslim world with more than 100 deaths during these particular incidents. The Danish embassy in Pakistan was bombed and embassies in Syria, Lebanon and Iran were fire bombed as well. Danish, Dutch, Norwegian, French and German flags were burned in Gaza City.

1. Brooke Shields
Garry Gross was an American fashion photographer. In 1975, he took a collection of pictures. This particular picture shows Brooke Shields posing in front of the camera in the nude. She was only ten years old when this picture was taken. The pictures were taken with the consent of her mother Teri Shields. Garry was working on a project at that time by the name of ‘The Woman in the child’. In 1981, Brooke Shields tried to prevent the further use of these photographs but the court ruled that according to the contract she couldn’t do that. You understand why these pictures are controversial.

~Blog Admin~

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