The Power of Photography National Geographic

I visited the Annenberg Space for Photography today to see the exhibit celebrating National Geographic's 125 years.  The exhibit shows over 500 photos from over 130 photographers.  The walls are wallpapered with enlarged photos, from floor to ceiling.  In addition, there are a number of large video screens showing works going back over 100 years that change every minute or so.

The opening video features the works of several photographers and how their work changes how we see things and in some cases changes public policy.  For example, the photos of endangered animals has led to protecting them.  A photo of an 11 year girl about to marry a 40 year old man is changing policy, slowly, in Afghanistan.

Here is a bit of what I saw:

A photo of a young Afghanistan woman resident of a refugee camp in Pakistan by Steve McCurry in 1984

A Singer weeps after performing a song praising her new leader, Kum Jong Un at a rally in Pynongyang, North Korea in 2012 by David Guttenfelder.

"The Hadza, 2009 a tribe in northern Tanzania grow no food, raise no livestock, and live without rules or calendar.  Girls like Sangu, in photo are raised to be independent and powerful, free to marry or divorce at will."

Photos by Erika Larson in Norway (left) and Sweden (right) are reindeer herders whose families are indigenous Scandinavians.

The photo on the left is of a Russian father with his daughter.  At right the Indian boy is wearing his beads, tradzy.

The 2006-2007 photos are called Deadly Contact.  The description states:
"Johnson's photo essay on the global impact of zoonotic diseases featured this shot of a child in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on her way to market with a basket of potential moneypox carriers, as well as a photograph of a fruit bat being tested for the deadly Hendria virus.

This 3200-year-old giant sequoia called the President rises 247 feet in Sequoia National Park.  Michael Nichols, the photographer pieced together a mosaic of 126 images to create this picture for the December 2012 issue of the National Geographic magazine.

Stephanie Sinclair, photographer, has brought global attention to the issue of child brides in this 2003 photography taken in Damarda, Afghanistan published in the 2011 issues.  About 46% of Afghan girls marry before they reach 18.

2008, Jim Richardson, The Trotternish Peninsula Isle of Skye, Scotland.

2006, Maria Stenzel, Chinstrap penguins on an iceberg in the South Sandwich Islands.