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56 Photos From Around The World That Hit Harder Than Words Ever Could
Photography, if you want to be clinical about it, is a simple transaction: light hits film or a sensor, and whatever falls inside that small rectangle of a viewfinder becomes an image. But the result is rarely clinical. A good photograph can knock the air out of you.
One Reddit thread happened to be an unlikely place to see that in action: a user asked people to share the “hardest” photos from their countries, and the replies came through with exactly that. Take a look below and see which ones live up to the prompt.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Kosovo
This one from the war showing a young mother marching to safety while breastfeeding her daughter. The picture is now a mosaic and the mother and daughter are alright :)
RELATED:
#2
Canada
Wurm42: For anyone not familiar, this is Canadian athlete Terry Fox. After having his right leg amputated due to cancer, he started the "Marathon of Hope," trying to raise money for cancer research by running across Canada.
Terry started in St. Johns, Newfoundland, running the equivalent of a full marathon (26.2 miles) every day. He ran more than 2,400 miles (4,000 km) and reached Thunder Bay, Ontario before he had to stop.
Terry stopped because it turned out he'd been doing all the running after his cancer came back, and it had reached his lungs. He died nine months later.
He is an inspirational figure for Canadians and disabled people all over the world.
Sam Trudeau 2 days ago
The marathon continues every year. We invented insulin, it's our mission to help provide free cancer cures
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Bobert Robertson 2 days ago
Why is greynooks comment hidden? My cousins 16 year old has this same cancer as Terry Fox had right now. Not looking too good for him at the moment. Cancer s***s.
Bobert Robertson 2 days ago
S.ucks is censored? Man this site is worse than Trump when it comes to censoring what they dont like..
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Jeff White 1 day ago
I see this as one of THE most powerful images and acts ever. Truly humbling.
#3
Germany
An east German (GDR) soldier fleeing to Westberlin during the construction of the Berlin Wall in August 1961.
Spencer's slave no longer 3 days ago (edited)
19 year old Conrad Schumann defected on August 15 1961. He fled into the French Sector, was taken to a local Police station and reunited with his family who had already fled to the West.
#4
Morocco
The last photo taken of a wild Barbary Lion. Taken in 1924.
#5
United Kingdom
Live Aid, 1985. Wembley stadium jam packed and roughly one in every three people worldwide watched it. One of the last great humanitarian projects almost every country contributed to and one of the last great events hosted in the UK.
Spencer's slave no longer 3 days ago (edited)
The greatest showman who left behind a great musical legacy.
Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa) 3 days ago
They pioneered rock opera and arena rock so bands like Styx could fall flat on their face. BTW not a Styx fan.
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Jane Doe-Doe 2 days ago
Watched it live on TV while on holiday in a caravan, I still rewatch the Queen clip on YouTube
Paul Aasajärv 1 day ago
A small clarification 40 years later - about one in three people in the world - residents of socialist/communist countries enjoyed the event a year later, mostly via pirated VHS tapes.
#6
Ukraine
Kharkiv. 2014. Leninopad “Leninfalls.”
LookASquirrel 2 days ago
Isn't it sad that it was only around 11 years ago and most people forgot?
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#7
South Africa
27 April 1994 - our first democratic election where everyone has the right to vote. This is a line at the ballot box.
Earonn - 2 days ago
To be allowed to vote is such a precious right - and then people don't use it because they're too lazy (but afterwards they complain about 'the bad politicians' - guys, you are bad citizens, what do you think you deserve?)
Novlette Williams 2 days ago
Not to worry the Americans who refuse to vote soon won't have to.
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Jason O'Connor 1 day ago
Unfortunately some us come from a country where it doesn't matter what the voting outcome was, the current government remains and always wins.
#8
Russia
This one is pretty cool.
VikingAbroad 3 days ago
He had fed her when she was (I try to remember) a cub herself. One day as a grown up she showed up with her own cub begging for food.
Nikolaj Christensen 1 day ago
I mean... she COULD eat HIM, but luckily did not have to!
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#9
Germany
Survivors of the concentration camp Buchenwald showing how they "lived" in the barracks.
Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa) 3 days ago
And some A$$holes think it never happened. The fact it happened makes me sick. The denires also make me sick.
Geobugi🇰🇷🇰🇭 3 days ago
You honestly can not take this people as serious. Sometimes i have the feeling that some people just blast that sort of opinion to get attention so i deny that to them, just ignore the hôlocaust deniers, flat earther, anti vaxxers and all the other nutjobs so they hopefully find another hobby
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Emilie Beard 2 days ago
This happened to my uncle Hubert. Unrcognizable when he fnally got home, but he still died from all that happened to him in the barracks. Only lived another 4-5 months. So sad, so thin and emaciated and to this day I cannot understand the cruelty involved. Will never understand it.
Peaceful Mary 1 day ago
And NOT survive. Thus, millions of deaths due to these camps.
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Peaceful Mary 1 day ago (edited)
The camps currently being built here scare the hell out of me. Is this what will happen to those they will put in them? I'm scared for our country and the people that they are picking up and 'disappearing', just like what happened during WW2.
Cpt. Christan "Panda Bombero" 1 day ago
And yet somehow we still have Complete Waste of Human Space Racist Muck Fuppets, who will proclaim that this never actually happened. Including some who are currently serving in positions of "authority".
#10
Belgium
Belgium, 1927.
Einstein. Curie. Bohr. Planck. Heisenberg. Schrödinger. Dirac.
The greatest scientific gathering ever photographed.
Geobugi🇰🇷🇰🇭 3 days ago
This is fake because trump is not in it. You people probably forget he has 10 nobel prices! Best scientist in the world! Everybody says so! No one in the history of science is as smart as him!😂 Sorry, i could not resist
#11
The United States Of America
Ruby Bridges, New Orleans, 1960.
Cacafuego: Pride is all Americans should feel, looking at this photo. Pride in tough-as-nails little Ruby and all of our fellow countrymen who stood up and claimed the freedom and equality we are promised. Forget about everything else for the moment. That's an American right there.
CrazeMase. In case anyone wants to know how recent this was, she is 71 now. She's still alive, she currently does political activism.
Multa Nocte 2 days ago
Sorry - I also feel shame for how the people treated this poor child and others like her.
Norfolk and good 2 days ago (edited)
She had to be taught alone because parents' didn't want their child in the same classroom as her, all but one teacher refused to teach her, she could only eat food brought from home because people were threatening to poison her, her father lost his job, the local store where the family had shopped for years refused to serve them anymore, and her grandparents were evicted off the land they'd lived on for decades.
nicholas nolan 2 days ago
She was even frightened to eat the food she brought! Monstrous.
Load More Replies... Stephanie A Mutti 2 days ago
She was too young to have to be this brave. The "adults" arguing against her ought to have been ashamed of themselves.
Alger G. Nava 2 days ago
Not pride, this just shows how racist the US was then and is now. Have not seen any ICE agents arrest a blond blue eyes woman thaat could clearly be from Sweden and ilegally in the country.
Rob D 2 days ago
This is why I say there has not been a single time in American history being a conservative put you on the right side of history. Pick up any given Republican and drop them in this time they would absolutely be against Brown v. Board. Dropped into the early 1900s they would get be against women's suffrage. Honestly what do you think the average magat's thoughts would be on slavery in 1855? 1776...if the political middle of the road was tacit tolerance of being a British colony, certainly the idea of a revolution to install liberal democracy would be left of center. So where does that leave our star spangled 'murican conservative? That's right, King George loyalist. American conservativitism is rooted in hypocrisy and opposition to whatever history will inevitably deem morally right; it hasn't changed because by definition it opposes change.
#12
Poland
Polish Women’s Strike 2020.
#13
Iceland. This Is Fine
Quarkonium2925: Just another Tuesday in Iceland.
Remi (He/Him) 2 days ago
The annoyed way the person is standing 😂 like they're saying "Oh, you have to be kidding me, stop that nonsense at once" to the volcano
Novlette Williams 2 days ago
It's Iceland, they probably are saying just that.
Load More Replies... #14
Scotland
Statue of kelpies, a Scottish mythical creature.
Chich the witch 2 days ago (edited)
Took a short bus tour through part of Scotland. The driver pointed out a wooded hill amongst farm fields. He told us it was avoided by locals as it was inhabited by faeries and "not those wimpy disney ones, these are proper bastards."
Spencer's slave no longer 3 days ago
Yes, it's definitely photo shopped in.
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#15
Poland
Photo after First heart transplant in Poland.
#16
Lithuania
Baltic Way, 1989 - peaceful protest of Baltic people against the USSR regime by creating a live human chain across the 3 Baltic countries. This exact picture should be taken in Lithuania.
Kristiina Männiste 3 days ago
I wanted to participate in the Baltic Way (I was a very political 6 year old😅) , but my parents forbid it because the fear of KGB repressions. They thought the Baltic Way would be smothered in blood. Thank heaven it was not. But the people who participated were very very brave.
Kristiina Männiste 3 days ago
I also begged my grandpa to take me to the parliament house, when the tanks of the August coup were rolling in to displace our government (I was visiting them in Tallinn at the moment). But nooo, I was evacuated to their dacha out of the city and had to follow the course of things via radio only. Ever have History happen a 15 min bus drive from you and you do not have the 15 kopeyek for the fare?
Load More Replies... #17
Australia
blondzie: That’s the most Australia thing I’ve seen.
RamiRudolph 12 hours ago
Not the most Australian thing. Where's the poisonous snakes and the giant spiders?
#18
Canada
Canuck the downtown Eastside crow. Stealing a knife from a crime scene.
#19
The United States Of America
It's the eruption of Mt. St. Helens. The photographer is Richard Lasher (I think!). It's a pretty famous photo in my state.
Remi (He/Him) 2 days ago
Richard Lasher confirmed. He almost didn't make it out from under the eruption on his motorcycle and that Ford Pinto was toast
#20
New Zealand
Neon_Pickles 3 days ago
Aotearoa, as it should properly be called. Any fellow Kiwis here? These men were part of the Maori Battalion in the Second World War. From the New Zealand National Library: Members of the Maori Battalion who had fought in Greece, performing a haka for the King of Greece at Helwan, Egypt. Photograph taken circa 24 June 1941 by an unidentified official photographer. The four men in the foreground are, left to right; John Manuel, Maaka White, Te Kooti Reihana, and Rangi Henderson.
Spencer's slave no longer 3 days ago
Fellow Kiwi here, thank you for naming these soldiers. This is a photo of the Maōri Battalion I haven't seen in a long time, Waiouru Army Museum was where I first saw it.
Load More Replies... John Dilligaf 2 days ago
fun fact: The name of the New Zealand Army in Maori, Ngāti Tūmatauenga, translates as the "'Tribe of the God of War"
Earonn - 2 days ago
These men are the reason why the Americans and British who babble about "WE ALONE WON THE WAR" are such disgusting fvcks. It was a shared effort, and to pretend that soldiers like these Māori didn't exist is only marginally better than fighting them.
nicholas nolan 2 days ago
If one peice of the puzzle of victory was missing, the world would be in a very different place.
Load More Replies... #21
Poland
Professor Simona Kossak, Polish zoologist and ecologist, with her pet wild boar in her hut in the Białowieża Primeval Forest.
#22
Hungary
I have many (including some from the 1956 revolution), but this is the one that still sticks with me.
Not Photoshop, it was the aftermath of the "red mud" disaster that happened in 2010. A faulty wall broke down, and a 2-meter-high wave of liquid bauxite residue (causing chemical burns) flooded the nearby village, [fatal to]10 people. There are many iconic photos from this incident as well, but this is probably my favorite.
Flickers_and_Sparks 2 days ago
At first I thought it was two pictures stuck together. Looks nasty indeed
Anna Losonczy 2 days ago
My father as a firefighter was there to help, it was a disaster indeed.
#23
Estonia
#24
United Kingdom
The Blitz.
azubi 1 day ago
"Boo-hoo, we bombed their cities and then they just did the same thing! How unfair!"
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#25
During The 2021 Protests. Colombia
During the 2021 protests.
#26
Venezuela
A heroic young man destroying a statue of the exdictator Hugo Chavez during the 2024 protests.
#27
France
Sinking of the oil tanker Amoco Cadiz in 1978 off the coast of Brittany.
Michael MacKinnon 1 day ago
"When the eel bites your arm and it won' let, cha go...."
Load More Replies... Nicole Weymann 2 days ago
The photo looks a bit like a non sequitur collage, with the sinking ship resembling a forced perspective giant whale, and the shutters partially mirrored ZZZs implying sleep.
#28
Spain
Some of the thousands of volunteers that cleaned the Galician coast after the "Prestige" oil spill.
#29
Australia
Australian volunteer firefighter, Daniel Knox, during a controlled burn.
ILoveMySon 2 days ago
It DOES. I was thought it was Nicholas Cage in the photo.
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Zero Costa 1 day ago
plenty of fires happening in Aus right now. parts of Victoria are still burning :(
#30
Chile
This photo after the 8.8 magnitude earthquake that happened in 2010 always stayed with me.
#31
Iceland
Nikolaj Christensen 1 day ago (edited)
Literally! And so is the hills! The hills are alive with the sound of magma bubbling?
Load More Replies... #32
The Netherlands
October 2025: Storm Benjamin hits the coast at Vlissingen, the Netherlands.
#33
Nepal
This is Singha Durbar (Lion's palace) that had most administrative centers of Nepal Government. It was burnt during GenZ protest last September.
Kathy 1 day ago
What started as a peaceful protest, turned violent when some bad actors got involved (probably the CIA among others). It was over in two days, but they successfully brought down the government. Something like 80 or 90 people died, if I remember correctly.
Nikolaj Christensen 1 day ago
Ah... so THATS why no one reports on it in the 'murica...
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#34
Pakistan
K-2, Chogori casts its shadow over China.
Rali Meyer 2 days ago (edited)
here is a myth: K2 initialy never had a real name because it is too far from any human who could have seen and named it before Colonel T.G. Montgomerie "detected" it
#36
Spain
Julie Rogers 3 days ago
This image captures the moment a car carrying Spanish Prime Minister Luis Carrero Blanco was launched into the air by a b**b. The assassination occurred on December 20, 1973, in Madrid, Spain.
Miguel López Genicio 2 days ago
It would be worth noting that he was Primer Minister in a dictatorship, and not in democracy.
Load More Replies... John Dilligaf 2 days ago
and hence the macabre joke about Carrero being the "first Spanish astronaut"
Highwaytozen 2 days ago
Thought this was a deleted scene from The Chamber of Secrets for a min
#37
Northern Ireland
Lyone Fein 2 days ago
“If we poison our children with hatred, the hard life is all that they’ll know”
Spencer's slave no longer 3 days ago
Press photos of "The Troubles" were often black and white.
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#38
Ireland
Fat Harry (Oi / You) 2 days ago
That's an army b**b disposal technician going to diffuse a reported b**b in the red van. The text on the wall is apposite.
DrBronxx 2 days ago (edited)
It's *Northern* Ireland, specifically. You can also tell it's a protestant area because of the red, white and blue-painted kerbs. That's not a feature of the city - the locals paint them. There may or may not be a b.o.m.b in the car (there were a lot of b**b scares for years. Some real, some not).
#39
India
This was the start of India's space program -- the first sounding rocket being transported on a bicycle in 1963. And in 2023, we became the fourth country to get to the Moon.
Stardust she/her 2 days ago
I love this story. Basically India was such a poor country at the time that the scientists and engineers had to manually assemble the rocket at the local high school as well as manually transport it to the launch site which was behind a church in Kerala. They would transport rocket parts via bicycles like in this photo or by walking or in bullock carts as there was not enough money to hire trucks to do the same. Dr Vikram Sarabhai (founder of ISRO) and APJ Abdul Kalam (scientist as well as President of India) were instrumental in this mission. ISRO has a reputation of doing a lot with very less budget, such as the time we got to Mars on our maiden attempt, something no other country has managed to do with a budget less than that of a typical Hollywood movie
Auntriarch 1 day ago
And it happened because of people who started off like you 👍
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#41
Finland
The president of Finland in the 1970s.
Kelly Scott 2 days ago
How very weird. I looked at that pic and thought he looked just like my dad. Then I realized my grandma was FInnish.
#42
Canada
Sidney Crosby just after scoring the golden goal in 2010. Canada has so many war and forest fire photos that I feel like a positive photo is way harder.
Jeff White 1 day ago
From the U.S. The real "Hero" in this battle was Jerome Iginla. His battle / clean play / but often considered "dirty" work along the boards to perfectly set up this goal is what I remember. And that is a great thing. Hockey's acknowledgement of the value of an Assist, recognizing the work of all players, not just the goal scorer, is why Hockey is the best sport. As a U.S. citizen, this loss was tough, quite tough. But it was also one of the most beautiful things (but not in this picture) that I have seen in Sport.
Chewie Baron 2 days ago
Canada’s third time hosting an Olympics (one Summer and two Winter) and Vancouver 2010 was the first time Canada won an Olympics gold medal on home soil.
#43
United States Of America
Moon Landing.
jjtnd1: Winner winner. Maybe the hardest pic humanity has taken to date
#45
The United States Of America
Tornado of Beaver City, Nebraska (1989) by Merrilee Thomas, depicting their daughter Audra and a tornado.
#47
The United States Of America
Remi (He/Him) 2 days ago
Charles Clyde Ebbets. Looks like he was even less concerned with safety, at least based on the pics of him you can find
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#48
Saudi Arabia
Fajr prayer in a shelter in eastern Saudi Arabia during the Gulf war.
#49
Nigeria
Novlette Williams 2 days ago
How is this animal a***e? Is it because he's Black and couldn't possibly interact with an animal without abusing it? Have you heard of the Hyena men? Also, how do you a***e a hyena? Justify your statement please.
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Novlette Williams 2 days ago
Yes and? Have you heard about colonialism and them bring all their c**p to Africa?
Load More Replies... #50
Australia
Tucker Cahooter 2 days ago
That guy is going to learn that Marquess of Queensberry Rules are not going to apply here
#51
India
#52
United States Of America
Julie Rogers 3 days ago
Three of the six Marines in the photograph—Sergeant Michael Strank, Corporal Harlon Block, and Private First Class Franklin Sousley—were k****d in action.
#53
India
Jessica Daus-Warner 2 days ago
Looks like one of those magicians that make folks disappear behind the curtain lol
#54
Argentina
Cuppa tea? 2 days ago
If this goal was blatant cheating, his second goal was pure godlike genius.
Spencer's slave no longer 3 days ago
The "Hand of God goal" by Maradona in the 1986 World Cup quarter finals, Argentina v England. That was deemed not a handball and England were knocked out of the Cup.
Load More Replies... #55
India
An Indian Air Force Sukhoi 30MK-1 with the Umaid Bhawan Palace as the backdrop.
#56
The United States Of America
I will look for ANY EXCUSE to show this image of Nixon bowling.
Chewie Baron 2 days ago
I think the bowling alley in the White House has since been removed.
Load More Replies... Add New Image
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What do you think ?
LookASquirrel 2 days ago
Who else read the headline and is stuck on " Around the world Around the world Around the world"?
LookASquirrel 2 days ago
Who else read the headline and is stuck on " Around the world Around the world Around the world"?
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