Remember *That* Picture?

We've all seen events of the past century made significant through iconic images: the visual that epitomises the moment, tells the back-story or reveals something that will not, or cannot, be articulated. For example, the 1972 photograph of Phan Thi Kim Phuc, a Vietnamese girl running naked, arms outstretched, burned by a napalm attack became emblematic of the Vietnam war.

The present day environmental justice movement may credit two important infographics to its evolution: satellite images of the depletion of the ozone layer above Antartica, and the simple infographic explaining the Greenhouse Effect. There are also plenty of lesser known visuals which are momentous and significant even if they don't make it on to the frontpage of every newspaper worldwide. Take the Shrinking Map of Palestine, a simple and powerful map presenting the grave realities of the Palestine-Israel conflict.

Visuals like these can slip through the cracks, got lost in translation or be easily forgotten in a constantly changing, information loaded environment.

Can you think of a visual image (map, design, drawing, painting, photograph) which tells a story that hasn't been heard? In your country or community, what visual is iconic of a key political moment? We're writing a book about the coming together of evidence and the visual arts in activism, and right now we're crowdsourcing stories about political transition or change for a community where a particular visual representation was extremely important.

We have been able to find many examples from Central and Western Europe and North America but want to find more from other parts of the world.

What we're looking for: Lesser known visuals which have been socially and politically significant for communities and societies throughout Africa, Asia and Latin America. This includes photos, maps, charts, televised clips, raw video footage, posters, political graphics, infrographics, data sheets or tables and even propaganda imagery.  

What we're not looking for: Images of much-discussed events from the Western world in the past few decades, like the collapse of the World Trade Centre Towers in 2001 or the image of a bombed London bus; images from Central Europe and North America.

Depending on your preferred channel you can email Maya maya@tacticaltech.org, tweet us at @info_activism or share a link on Facebook. Tell us what you remember about that visual and why, and why it was significant at the time.

We'll be happy to credit you with contributing to our book. Thanks!