It has been said that a picture is worth a thousand words, but some pictures are far more powerful than others. The pictures featured below capture human condition and highlight some of the worst and best moments of mankind’s modern existence.
Some of the pictures may fill you with happiness and joy, while others are going to upset and sadden you. However, this wide range of emotion is what makes these images so powerful. We hope these images will remind everyone that our world could always use a tad more compassion, love, and understanding.
We always try to credit every photographer possible, but sometimes it can be nearly impossible to figure out where some images came from. Please let us know in the comments if you know the missing image credits!
Some parents, likely now in their 70’s, still looking for their missing child.
Image credits: reddit.com
An Afghan man offers tea to soldiers
Image credits: Rafiq Maqbool / AP
During massive floods in Cuttack City, India, in 2011, a heroic villager saved numerous stray cats by carrying them with a basket balanced on his head
Image credits: Biswaranjan Rout / AP
Russian soldiers preparing for the Battle of Kursk, July 1943
Image credits: Shirak Karapetyan-Milshtein
Update: Reader Leif-Erik pointed out that this photograph was actually created in 2006-2007 for a photo competition. It is based on archive photos from the war in Russia in 1941-1945.
Demonstration of condom usage at a public market in Jayapura, capital of Papua, 2009
Image credits: Adri Tambunan
Greg Cook hugs his dog Coco after finding her inside his destroyed home in Alabama following the Tornado in March, 2012
Image credits: Gary Cosby Jr. / AP
The Graves of a Catholic woman and her Protestant husband, Holland, 1888
Image credits: retronaut.com
A woman sits amidst the wreckage caused by a massive earthquake and ensuing tsunami, in Natori, northern Japan, in March 2011
Image credits: Asahi Shimbun, Toshiyuki Tsunenari / AP
Flower power
Image credits: Bernie Boston
Indian homeless men wait to receive free food distributed outside a mosque ahead of Eid al-Fitr in New Delhi, India
Image credits: Tsering Topgyal / AP
Zanjeer the dog saved thousands of lives during Mumbai serial blasts in March 1993 by detecting more than 3,329 kgs of the explosive RDX, 600 detonators, 249 hand grenades and 6406 rounds of live ammunition. He was buried with full honors in 2000
Image credits: STR News / Reuters
An old WW2 Russian tank veteran finally found the old tank in which he passed through the entire war – standing in a small Russian town as a monument
Image credits: englishrussia.com
“Wait For Me Daddy,” by Claude P. Dettloff in New Westminster, Canada, October 1, 1940
Image credits: Claud Detloff
A dog named “Leao” sits for a second consecutive day at the grave of her owner, who died in the disastrous landslides near Rio de Janiero in 2011.
Image credits: Vanderlei Almeida / Getty Images
Hhaing The Yu, 29, holds his face in his hand as rain falls on the decimated remains of his home near Myanmar’s capital of Yangon (Rangoon). In May 2008, cyclone Nargis struck southern Myanmar, leaving millions homeless and claiming more than 100,000 lives.
Image credits: Brian Sokol
Five-year-old gypsy boy on New Year’s Eve 2006 in the gypsy community of St. Jacques, Perpignan, Southern France. It is quite common in St. Jacques for little boys to smoke.
Image credits: Jesco Denzel
Sunset on Mars
Image credits: nasa.gov
Embracing couple in the rubble of a collapsed factory
Image credits: Taslima Akhter
Alcoholic father with his son
Image credits: imgur.com
Terri Gurrola is reunited with her daughter after serving in Iraq for 7 months
Image credits: Louie Favorite
Man Falling from the World Trade Center on 9/11. “The Falling Man.”
Image credits: Richard Drew / AP
A firefighter gives water to a koala during the devastating Black Saturday bushfires in Victoria, Australia, in 2009
Image credits: abc.net.au
Christians protect Muslims during prayer in the midst of the 2011 uprisings in Cairo, Egypt
Image credits: Nevine Zaki
Young man just found out his brother was killed
Image credits: Nhat V. Meyer
A Russian soldier playing an abandoned piano in Chechnya in 1994
Image credits: drugoi.livejournal.com
Diego Frazão Torquato, 12 year old Brazilian playing the violin at his teacher’s funeral. The teacher had helped him escape poverty and violence through music.
Image credits: salvemasnossascriancas.blogspot.com
Father and son (1949 vs 2009)
Image credits: Vojage-Vojage
Heart surgeon after 23-hour-long (successful) heart transplant. His assistant is sleeping in the corner.
Image credits: James Stanfield
Inside an Auschwitz gas chamber
Image credits: kligon5
h/t [boredpanda]