Man walks on the Moon

In one of the most famous photographs of the 20th Century, Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin walks on the surface of the moon near the leg of the lunar module Eagle. Apollo 11 Commander Neil Armstrong took this photograph with a 70mm lunar surface camera. Armstrong and Aldrin explored the Sea of Tranquility for two and a half hours while crewmate Michael Collins orbited above in the command module Columbia.

As the world remembers the thrilling Apollo 11 mission 35 years later, NASA's newVision calls for a return to the moon, followed by journeys of discovery to Mars and beyond

Tsunami Floating Bodies

Tsunami Floating Bodies

The Boxing Day Tsunami that struck Thailand in 2004 caused approximately 350,000 deaths and many more injuries.

Earthrise

The late adventure photographer Galen Rowell called it "the most influential environmental photograph ever taken." Captured on Christmas Eve, 1968, near the end of one of the most tumultuous years the U.S. had ever known, the Earthrise photograph inspired contemplation of our fragile existence and our place in the cosmos. For years, Frank Borman and Bill Anders of the Apollo 8 mission each thought that he was the one who took the picture. An investigation of two rolls of film seemed to prove Borman had taken an earlier, black-and-white frame, and the iconic color photograph, which later graced a U.S. postage stamp and several book covers, was by Anders

Palestinian Woman Pleads

Palestinian woman Pleads with Soldier

World Press Photo of the Year: 1976 Françoise Demulder, France, Gamma. Beirut, Lebanon, January 1976. Palestinian refugees in the district La Quarantaine. About the image She was the first woman to win the World Press Photo, and did so on the 20th anniversary of the award. Demulder stated at the time that she hated war, but felt compelled to document how it's always the innocent who suffer, while the powerful get richer and richer.

Boy throws Rock at Tank

Palestinian Boy throws rock at Israeli tank.

A Brave Palestinian boy throws stones at an Israeli tank during a clash May 19, 2003 at Beit Hanoun town in the northern Gaza Strip

Starving boy and missionary

Starving boy and a missionary

World Press Photo of the Year: 1980 Mike Wells, United Kingdom. Karamoja district, Uganda, April 1980. Starving boy and a missionary. About the image Wells felt indignant that the same publication that sat on his picture for five months without publishing it, while people were dying, entered it into a competition. He was embarrassed to win as he never entered the competition himself, and was against winning prizes with pictures of people starving to death.

Lenna Playboy

It seems that very few people have seen the original (and uncropped) version of the image. Click on the Thumbnail below to see the Full Image (WARNING , Lena is, of course, nude).

Lena Nude

Picture of Lena Söderberg, scanned out of a Playboy article. The image is probably the most widely used test image for all sorts of image processing algorithms (such as compression and denoising) and related scientific publications.

Furthermore, it is the first published image in jpeg-compression. (.jpg or .jpeg image files are by far the popular format used by websites today.. including on PTCTW.com)

Lenna or Lena is the name given to a standard test image originally cropped from a Playboy magazine centerfold picture of Lena Söderberg, a Swedish model who posed nude for the November 1972 issue. The image is probably the most widely used test image for all sorts of image processing algorithms (such as compression and denoising) and related scientific publications.

The anglicised version "Lenna" of Söderberg's name comes from the Playboy article; Playboy changed the original "Lena".

The use of the image has produced some controversy, with some people concerned about Playboy magazine as the source of the image, and with the image being copyrighted.

When the IS&T wanted to invite Söderberg to their meeting, Playboy helped track down the Swedish native in Stockholm, where she helps handicapped people work on (non-networked) computers. Although Playboy is notorious for cracking down on illegal uses of its images, it has decided to overlook the widespread distribution of this particular centerfold.

Says Eileen Kent, VP of new media at Playboy: "We decided we should exploit this, because it is a phenomenon."

Coincidentally, Playboy states the issue was its best-selling ever, having sold 7,161,561 copies as of May 2006.

Take the picture already!

Take the picture already!

In terms of of a changing the world this photo is minor league but It just had to be included because its a very famous and renowned photograph.

The shot is more commonly known as "Child with Toy Hand Grenade in Central Park"

The photo shows a boy, with the left strap of his jumper awkwardly hanging off his shoulder, tensely holding his long, thin arms by his side. Clenched in his right hand is a toy grenade, and his left hand is held in a claw-like gesture; his facial expression is maniacal. Arbus captured this photograph by having the boy stand while moving around him, claiming she was trying to find the right angle. The boy became impatient and told her to "Take the picture already!" His expression conveys his exasperation and impatience with the whole endeavor, as the contact sheet for the shoot reveals. In other pictures, he is seen as a happy child.
The boy in the photograph is Colin Wood, son of tennis player Sidney Wood. An interview with Colin, with his recollections about Arbus taking this photograph, is presented in the BBC documentary "The Genius of Photography".
An original print of the photograph sold for $408,000 April 2005, New York at Christie's.

Sadly the Photographer Diane Arbus committed suicide in July 1971, at the age of 48 by ingesting a large quantity of barbiturates and then slashing her wrists. The reasons are unknown.