This one. The photographer was told not to touch the child for fear of disease, but after he took the picture he chased the vulture away. (Apparently, though, he waited until the vulture was close enough before taking the picture.)
I don’t have image sharing, so I can’t provide a link, but it’s a slightly fuzzy, poorly lit shot that may have been an attempt at a landscape photo but more likely was taken by accident when someone pushed the button on their 110 camera without meaning to. It shows a slice of yard, a few trees, and, beyond a field, the rise of a gravel road.
But there’s a handful of us, a few close family members, who would immediately recognize the scene, and know exactly where the unknown photographer was standing: in the vegetable garden in the far southeast corner of my grandparents’ yard, looking out diagonally toward the road.
There are, of course, other photos that show the house and the yard more clearly, but somehow this one, instantly recognizable to only a few of us, is the most evocative.
Second photo down. Jessica Whelan, at age 4, undergoing cancer treatments.
One from within my family that I really like and keep on my phone: my nephew Mike was diagnosed with diabetes when he was just a toddler. When his little brother, David, was about 7, he was also diagnosed with juvenile diabetes. The picture is of David, right after he was diagnosed and still wearing a hospital gown, tightly hugging Mike, who is staring into the distance.
Plucky little sole survivor Cecelia Cichan. Northwest Airlines Flight 255, August 1987.
Walker Evans’ photos from James Agee’s “Let Us Now Praise Famous Men”.
