16 Photographs

I have picked out 16 photographs which still make me ponder now on the cruelty, beauty and horror of us and our Planet.

USA Olympics        1968

At the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, 200m sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their black-gloved fists on the victory podium during the U.S. national anthem to protest racial injustice, poverty, and systemic oppression, the media depicted it as a Black Power Salute but Smith called it a 'Human Rights Salute'.
Often overlooked is the third athlete in the picture, Australian Peter Norman, who wore a humans rights badge and was similarly ostracised by his own nation after the protest was screened live around the World.
The International Olympic Committee condemned the act as against Olympic apolitical rules although it was pointed out that 30 years earlier, they never condemned the Nazi Salutes at the Berlin Olympics.
Both Smith and Carlos faced an intense public backlash and death threats upon returning to the United States but they reached the pinnacle of sporting achievement, and selflessly used it to draw attention to what was going on in their World and put their principles and professional career before their own personal interests.