The dictionary defines poignant as something deeply affecting. I like this word a lot, especially when it is expressed through photography. A poignant picture is more than a technically “good” picture. It is also more than just a record of a moment. A poignant picture should tell us something of the essence of life: we look at it and instantly feel connected to it because, somehow, it touches the core of our humanity. Below are images of various vintages and places that are poignant to me because they represent moments that are so much more than words can tell.
The Innocence of Youth
The innocence of youth: children of Budapest (1954). Photo: Erno Vadas.
Boy on a pram, New York (undated). Photo: Helen Levitt.
Two girls on a rope attached to a lamppost, Hulme, Manchester, 1965. Photo: Shirley Baker. What is more pristine about our humanity than the innocence of young children still unaware of the shadows and conflicts that envelop our world?
A tender moment between father and son as a boy plays pilot on a toy plane constructed by his father. Picture taken by the famous photographer Robert Doisneau in a small suburban town in France, 1934.
Girls at a Tibetan refugee camp near Sera Jay Monastery, Kamataka, India, 2005. Photo: Bobby Segar.
The things that capture the hearts of little children: a little girl playfully stomping her feet on a puddle of water.How something as simple as a water bottle can create so such joy is evident in the expression of this little boy on the streets of Bhutan. Photo: Rachel Chung.
A moment of friendship shared between two girls in an orphanage in Rwanda, 2004. Bobby Segar.
School children during a rainstorm, Lesotho, Africa, 1981. Photo: Steele Perkins.
Love Conquers All
The hug. Photo: Alfred Eisenstaedt, 1940s.
Sunday Morning at the Champs-Elysees (1951). Photo: Bert Hardy.
A Palestinian couple dances together during their wedding ceremony in the West Bank city of Nablus while a brutal conflict was unfolding outside. Photo: Ami Vitale.Tanya, 38, cries with her son, Bogdan, 10, before getting a train to Lviv at the Kyiv station, Ukraine, March 3, 2022. AFP Photo.In the remote Himalayan village of Sangla in Ladakh, Latak and his wife stock up essentials for their son, Motup to attend boarding school in Leh 100 km from where they are. Latak will accompany his son on the journey which takes at least 4 days, winding through a treacherous terrain that requires steep climbs and river crossings cloaked with ice. It is one of the world’s longest ways to school, and definitely one of the most dangerous. Snapshot from a film by Leonhard Steinbichler.Latak accompanies his son on the 100 km journey of snow and icy cold winds from Sangla to Leh in Ladakh to send the boy to school. Photo: Leonard Steinbilchler.
War and Peace
“I have everything in my life because of him”. This is the poignant moment when Holocaust survivor Joshua Kaufman pays tribute to Daniel Gillespie, the American solider who saved him from the Dacau death camp seventy years ago.An boy peering through a broken wall, Afghan Refugee Processing Center, Pakistan, 2001. Photo: Bobby Segar.A young Palestinian girl squeezes through a gap in the Israeli-built security wall which cuts through the centre of the village of Abu Dis on the outskirts of Jerusalem. Photo: Judah Passow.
A boy living in the Internally Displaced Persons Camp in Pakistan proudly displaying his self-made toy, 2005. Photo: Bobby Segar.
The heartwarming smile of this little girl belies the pain she has to endure from the burns on her cheeks from an explosive after September 11, North Kabul, Afghanistan, 2001. Photo: Bobby Segar.
Afghan women wait for physiotherapy for their prosthetic legs at the International Committee for the Red Cross Hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan. Many had lost their limbs due to landmines and unexploded devices that litter the countryside follow decades of war and instability since 2001. Photo: Ami Vitale.
Girls attending “school” in Kacha Gari Refugee Camp, Pakistan, 2001, one of only two high schools for girls in the region. There is no roof, no lights, no heat, no furniture – just the desire to learn. Photo: Bob Segar. On the South Korea side of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), a young girl offers prayers for relatives in the North. It’s a tradition for South Korean families separated during the Korean War to visit the DMZ during the Lunar New Year to remember and pray for their ancestors and loved ones. Photo: Ed Jones.A girl catches a last glimpse of those staying behind as the train she prepares to depart from a train station in Lviv, western Ukraine, en-route to the town of Uzhhorod near the border with Slovakia on Mar. ch 3, 2022. AFP Photo.Palestinian youths retrieving books from the rubble of a mosque destroyed during Israeli bombardment in the town city of Rafah southern Gaza Strip on January 24, 2024. AFP Photo.A Palestinian boy taking shelter with his dog amid an ongoing war in Gaza, 2024.
True Grit
A man prostrating on the ground near Mount Kailash (6636m), the holiest mountain in Tibet for Hindus and Buddhists alike. Circumambulating the mountain is a tradition that dates back to ancient times and is believed to be enable one to accumulate merit, purify negative karma, and ensure a favorable rebirth. Tibetan pilgrims typically complete the 52-kilometer circumambulation route over the 5600-meter (18,500 feet) Dolma La pass in 15 hours, rising at 3am and finishing at 6pm. Most do more than one circuit. Photo: Emily Yeh.
Crossing the Buriganga river in Dhaka, Bangladesh in early morning. It is mind-boggling that boatmen can cross the river in thick fog knowing that it hides humongous ships operating on this river as well. Photo: France Leclerc.Girls run for cover from an oncoming sand storm in the remote desert town of Boujbeja in Mlai, Africa. The arid landscape presents tremendous challenges for the Arab Moors who live there and who must dig 70 meters underground to get water. Photo: Ami Vitale.
87-year-old Mrs Tomeyo Oba braves Hokkaido’s heavy snows and Siberian winds with a smile on her face as she makes her way to the hospital. Photo: Michael Yamashita.
With superhuman strength, this Pahadi man in the Himalayas in Nepal carries more than 200 kg of weight every day over a terrain 5 km steep.
“Never underestimate the power of a girl with a book,” said Ruth Bader Ginsburg in celebration of International Women’s Day. This image of Tajik schoolgirls embodies the late Supreme Court justices words. Photo: Michael Yamashita.Children in the “cliff village” of Liangshan risky life and limb on the way to school. The region is an economic backwater in China. Its isolation is caused by the harsh mountainous terrain, but also the different language and culture of the Yi ethnic minority.A mother and daughter brave the vicious cold to clear the flat mud-packed roofs of their home in remote Himalayan region of Humla in northwestern Nepal. They must finish their task quickly after every heavy snowstorm to prevent damage.
Life and Death
Flashback to 2021 when Covid-19 ravaged hundreds of thousands of people across India. Here, we have a heartbreaking scene of a man in Delhi crouching in sorrow beside a burning pyre for a loved one. On the outskirts of Otsuchi, a town battered by the 2011 tsunami, an old phone booth that houses an old rotary phone inside is a gathering place for people to “call” their departed loved ones. The wistfully named “Telephone of the Wind” was created by Itaru Sasaki while grieving his cousin who died of cancer. He purchased the old-fashioned phone booth and set it up in his garden. Here, Itaru felt a continued connection to his cousin, finding comfort and healing amid his grief. He gave his phone booth a name – Kaze No Denwa, translated as the Telephone of the Wind. It has since brought comfort to many strangers, some of whom come from distances away to make that poignant one-way call to their loved ones.Pashupatinath Temple is the oldest Hindu temple complex in Nepal and the most revered. To many, however, it is known as the place where the dead are burned and mourned in full view of locals, tourists and the ubiquitous stray dogs that roam the streets of Kathmandu. Photo: Rachel Chung.
In the end, we are just puffs of smoke – human cremation, Shiva Temple, Pashupatinath, Nepal, 2008. Photo: Bobby Segar.
