40 Important Historical Photos That Might Change Your Perspective On Things

The creator of the 'Photos From History' Instagram page has shared over 2.7k photos over the years. At the time of writing, the account had 1,430 followers.

The founder of the page quotes legendary French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson in the bio: “It is an illusion that photos are made with the camera. They are made with the eye, heart, and head.” We’re particularly big fans of the quote because we, too, believe that photography goes beyond technical skills and is Art with a capital ‘A.’

Some other brilliant quotes by Cartier-Bresson include the idea that “your first 10,000 photographs are your worst,” suggesting that there’s no substitute for practice and experience. He adds that “the picture is good or not from the moment it was caught in the camera,” alluding to the idea that art isn’t purely subjective—there’s a lot of objectivity hiding in each snap.

According to the French legend, taking a photograph means aligning “the head, the eye, and the heart.” For him, the camera was an extension of his body, and he would keep it with him at all times.

Photographer Cartier-Bresson said that the difference between a good picture and a mediocre one is “a question of millimeters.” Those tiny differences were essential. “I didn’t think there is such a big difference between photographers. But it is that little difference that counts, maybe,” he mused.

Bored Panda wanted to get professional photographer Dominic's thoughts on Cartier-Bresson's quote about millimeters separating the great from the mediocre.

"I think in some ways he is right. My interpretation of that is that the best photos are in the small details," he told us, adding that what makes a good photo to someone is open to interpretation. "But, if we're talking about art and aesthetics, then it definitely comes down to a game of millimeters," he said that the French photographer's thoughts can be interpreted differently.

We also wanted to get the photographer's opinion on standing out with one's photography now compared to a few decades ago. Dominic, from Ohio, believes that the art form has become far more accessible, so there's a lot more content. However, quality photographers will almost always stand out.

"At one time in history, you had to have a lot of money to be a photographer. Now, nearly everyone has a camera on them at all times. To some degree, it diminishes the art form, but, on the other hand, it opens the art form to so many more and creates a wider range of artists," he explained.

The professional photographer added that this doesn't necessarily mean that everyone with a camera is an artist. However, "it does put the power of artistic expression in the hands of more people, myself included."

He opened up to Bored Panda that his own photographic journey began as a teenager with a 1.3-megapixel cellphone camera. "What started as me taking photos of my friends skateboarding, turned into something much more."

In the expert's opinion, there's a saturation of photographs online these days, however, "those who excel in and hone their craft will stand out." He added that things tend to happen for a reason and that some images might stand out even if we don't understand why, at the moment.

Finally, Bored Panda was interested in Dominic's take on how AI might impact the photography industry. Some artists and writers are already worried about the rise of AI, and we wanted to know whether photographers have anything weighing on their minds, too.

"If anything, I could see AI becoming another art form in its entirety (which I feel it's already headed there) and possibly make photography more of an art form once again, rather than something we just take for granted," he shared his perspective with Bored Panda.

However, Dominic was honest that he has concerns about AI-generated images manipulating what is and isn't real. "I recently saw a political image that I did not know was AI. I thought it was a staged photograph, but I did not know it was AI until someone pointed it out to me. The spread of fallacy through generated images is something that scares me," he said, adding that other than that, photographers shouldn't fear AI.

With continued technological improvements and the rapid rise of AI, some people are worried that it will become more and more difficult to differentiate between what’s real and what’s been manipulated. It’s not a baseless fear either, as photo manipulation has become incredibly widespread thanks to social media and easily accessible filters, apps, and photo-editing software. People value aesthetics, but they also love authenticity, whether it’s a modern or historical photo. And it sometimes makes sense to be entirely sure whether a great-looking photo is genuine or a subtly-tweaked montage.

Some people lightly edit their pics, others go way overboard. Though many edited photos are quite easy to spot (you might have learned how to do that while scrolling your Instagram feed), others require an incredibly keen eye and some technological know-how to recognize them.

MUO explains that one of the ways that you can tell if an image has been altered is by looking at the edges. Odds are that if there are jagged edges around the subject in the photo, someone probably used photo-editing software. On the flip side, if the edges around objects like hair or fur are too smooth, this might be another sign that the image has been photoshopped. Zooming in on details can reveal a wealth of information.

Meanwhile, keep an eye out for any reversed text in the pics: the photo manipulator might have forgotten to focus on details like this. Moreover, take a look at the shadows in the image. Photoshopped shadows often look flat. Others might be missing altogether.

The same goes for odd or missing reflections and bad perspectives: they suggest that someone might have taken to photoshopping the image, adding, removing, altering, or moving around objects for whatever purpose they had in mind. What’s more, take the time to comb the background and look for ‘cloned’ objects—things that were copy-pasted multiple times to fill in the blank space.

According to How-To Geek, if something like a person’s skin looks too ‘perfect,’ it’s probably been airbrushed to get rid of any ‘imperfections.’ This can give the subject of the photo a strange, uncanny valley sort of feel, as though they’re not a real person.

Meanwhile, check for signs of warping by seeing if the background remains unaltered around the subject. An obvious sign of photo manipulation would be, for example, if the otherwise straight lines in the background are suddenly curved around someone’s biceps.

And that, in contrast, is the beauty of historical photos. They’re often authentic, maybe with some color rebalancing having been done to make the details pop. They’re full of character. They give us a fresh perspective on what we’ve only learned with the help of textbooks.

We’d love to hear which of these pics from ‘Photos From History’ you enjoyed the most, dear Pandas. Let us know in the comments which ones were your favorites and why. And don’t forget to follow the Instagram page if you enjoyed the type of content they feature.