Cambridge Awards Ceremony

The power of a photograph

 "Falling soldier" by Robert Capa

At first, I was looking for a colourful and modern photo, but I chose this because it's very striking to see a man losing his life in a second.

This picture is called "Death of a loyalist soldier"or "Falling soldier". The man who appears in it was Federico Borrell Garcia, and he was 25 years old.

It's one of the most well-known photographies of Spanish civil war, and it was taken by Robert Capa on 5th September in 1936.

When Robert took the photo, he was with her girlfriend, Gerda. She was German and the photographer too. When the war was ending, Gerda died of a cannonball.

The photo was captured at the same moment that a bullet killed Federico. He was wearing a white T-shirt, light colour trousers, shoes and a leather belt, and in his right hand he had a riffle.

During all the day, Capa was taking a lot of photographies to do a report, and this was the last photo that he took. It transmits me pain and sadness because I can't imagine what was the photographer's reaction when he saw that a man had dead in front of him.

All the images that Robert took the day of Federico's death, were published for first time on the 23rd September of 1936 in a French magazine.

This picture created a lot of opinions on the population. There were people that thought that it wasn't a real and spontaneous image. They said that it was an assembly and Federico posed for the photo.

Other people thought that it was a true picture that Capa did during the war.

But the true history of this history of this photo is that the 5th of September was a quiet day, so Robert went out with some soldiers to do some photographies of a false attack, when suddendly, they were victims of unexpected shoots.

Carla Baena

4t A

The power of a photograph

"The kiss" by Alfred Eisenstaedt

This photo was taken in Times Square, New York. At first, you can see a beautiful kiss between a marine and a nurse, and a lot of people walking around them looking the scene smiling.

The marine was dressing his uniform: dark clothes, a blue and white scarf around the neck and a white hat.

The nurse was dressing a white dress, white shoes and white tights.

It was taken on the 14 of August of 1945. They were two unknown young persons celebrating the end of the Second World War.

The marine was walking through Times Square kissing all the girls he saw, and  when he saw the nurse, he took her by the waist and she went up her right leg.

The photographer was Alfred Eisenstaedt. He was a very famous photographer of the Western of Prussia (the actual Poland). He started  his photographer life there, but in 1935 he went to the USA, and since then he lived there all his life.

When he saw, on Time Square the kiss, he took a photo quickly.

On the 27 of August of 1945, the photo was on the cover of Life's magazine.

I chose this photo because I think this is a very romantic moment of the history.

The photo was really natural and spontaneous, because they weren't posing for the photo. I think this is striking too, because it's too strange to see a nurse kissing a marine on the street.

I like how a simple kiss can represent the end of a big war.

Andrea Fernández

4t A

The power of a photograph

I chose that image because it was taken in one of my favourite places. This place, as I said one day in class, is Ibiza. I love it because there are a lot of beaches, luxury and party. So, it's the perfect island you can go in summer during holidays. To be precise, in the photograph you can see a beautiful sunset. It's near a swimming pool and next to the sea too. I think all these things together can transmit a good feeling. It's very peacefull, natural and maybe romantic if you are with a special person in that moment. The image is very dark but the colours red and orange highlight and make the photo a bit colourful.

This moment was taken from inside a room of the hotel. The person who took the photo is my brother, because he went during a week this summer. He said to me that it was amazing. He's a professional photographer, so he made a lot of fantastic photographs during his time in Ibiza.

I also want to be a photographer because I think it's an interesting profession.

I hope in the future I could do the same as my brother and maybe one day I will go to Ibiza to have a very good time and to make a lot of photos like this.

Marina López

4t A

The power of a photograph

"Abbey Road"

The photo I chose is one of The Beatles. I think it's the most known picture of them.On it we can see that they are on a street called Abbey Road and that they are walking on a zebra crossing. The one that is dressed with a white suit is John Lennon, the other one, dressed in black, is Ringo Starr, then it goes Paul McCartney and finally George Harrison. 

This photo is the cover of their last album, called "Abbey Road" in honour of the street. Initially it was going to be called "Everest" and they were preparing a photoshot in the Himalayas. On the background we can see a white "beatle" Volkswagen. It became famous and finally it was sold in an auction for 2,300 pounds.

The street is situated in Westminster, London. Nowadays there's a camera installed there and you can see the people that walks along it. The plate of the street's name was stolen by some fans.

The photo was spontaneous, because they didn't prepare the place to do the photoshot or their clothes. They just went out of their studio while the photographer, Ian McMillan, took photos of them. It was taken the 8 of August in 1969, and now it has become a tradition to cross that road every 8 of August.

I chose this picture because I wanted to talk about something that I really like: the music, and The Beatles are really important and famous in that world. Also because it's a very known photo.

Carla Martínez

4t B

The power of a photograph

Hiroshima photograph 360º

After the atomic bomb exploded in Hiroshima in 1945, Harbert F. Austin Jr. took a photo of the city remains covering all 360º.

In it we can see a dramatic scene about the effect of a war which destroyed a whole city and most of the people who were in it, although they were innocent.

It's apowerful and striking photograph because it shows us how devasting the attack was, that it only left mounts of trash.

In this part of the image there are a few people walking through a road surrounded by the ruins. I think this makes the place even lonelier because they may have returned to observe the rests where they used to live or to try to recognize something,but they don't really expect anything, they know that they won't find anything in good condition or alive,and it makes it look empty and sad.

There are the ruins of some buildings which stand out against the unrecognizable burned wooden houses. In this photo we can't see it, but the radiation left marks on some of the walls and if there were people in front of them (facing the explosion) they left their figure on the wall, what is quite disturbing.
This (...) is the Genbaku Dome. It's the emblem of the disaster because it was the nearest building to the explosion.
Well, about why I chose this photo, only because I searched on Google a photo with its author and I got this one which covered all 360º and I found it curious and unusual. But after I finished writing the summary of what I'd say, I think I understand a bit of the suffering that wars can cause.

Marina Navarro

4t B

The power of a photograph

The photo I've chosen was taken in 2003, in a bunker during a war in Leban. The name of the photographer is unknown, because he or she was arrested for taking photos during the war. Anyway, that person managed to upload this photo which is now in the archives of National Geographic.
I think that this photo caught my attention because of its contrasts: in this photo, you can see two different worlds in the same place but in different moments, and the situation of each world is completely different of the other.
The image shows a soldier, with a sad and tired expression, alone, and waiting to decide whether to kill or to die. That soldier is in a dirty and uncomfortable bunker, which makes that anyone who watches this picture can directly stare at poverty's and injustice's eyes. The sky in the photograph is grey and cloudy, like it was "affected" for the situation of that lonely soldier. But those grey and dark tones are broken just in the middle by a giant and colourful funfair. Just there is where we can see the two worlds: the world of adults and the world of kids, world of colours and world of grey, world of war and world of peace; and the world that a soldier sees from a war and the world that a little boy can see from the funfair.
That photo is very dramatic because of the detail of that funfair, because it makes it different from all the other war pictures. If there were only the bunker, the sadness and the soldier it would be just another "disturbing" picture of a war somewhere in the world. But the funfair seems to be looking at that man and maybe, a few years ago, he was in that funfair watching to the place where now he is fighting against his free will.

Julia Gallego, 4B