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In my industry,

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we believe that images can change the world.

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Okay, we're naive, we're bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.

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The truth is that we know that the

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images themselves don't change the world,

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but we're also aware that, since the beginning of photography,

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images have provoked reactions in people,

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and those reactions have caused change to happen.

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So let's begin with a group of images.

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I'd be extremely surprised

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if you didn't recognize many or most of them.

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They're best described as iconic:

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so iconic, perhaps, they're cliches.

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In fact, they're so well-known

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that you might even recognize them

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in a slightly or somewhat different form.

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(Laughter)

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But I think we're looking for something more.

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We're looking for something more.

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We're looking for images that shine

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an uncompromising light on crucial issues,

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images that transcend borders, that transcend religions,

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images that provoke us

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to step up and do something --

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in other words, to act.

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Well, this image you've all seen.

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It changed our view of the physical world.

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We had never seen our planet from this perspective before.

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Many people credit

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a lot of the birth of the environmental movement

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to our seeing the planet like this

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for the first time --

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its smallness, its fragility.

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Forty years later, this group, more than most,

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are well aware of the destructive power

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that our species can wield over our environment.

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And at last, we appear to be doing something about it.

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This destructive power takes many different forms.

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For example, these images taken by Brent Stirton

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in the Congo.

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These gorillas were murdered, some would even say crucified,

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and unsurprisingly,

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they sparked international outrage.

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Most recently,

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we've been tragically reminded of the destructive power of nature itself

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with the recent earthquake in Haiti.

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Well, I think what is far worse

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is man's destructive power over man.

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Samuel Pisar, an Auschwitz survivor, said,

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and I'll quote him,

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"The Holocaust teaches us that nature,

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even in its cruelest moments,

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is benign in comparison with man,

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when he loses his moral compass and his reason."

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There's another kind of crucifixion.

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The horrifying images from Abu Ghraib

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as well as the images from Guantanamo

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had a profound impact.

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The publication of those images,

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as opposed to the images themselves,

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caused a government to change its policies.

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Some would argue that it is those images

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that did more to fuel the insurgency in Iraq

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than virtually any other single act.

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Furthermore, those images forever removed

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the so-called moral high ground of the occupying forces.

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Let's go back a little.

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In the 1960s and 1970s,

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the Vietnam War was basically shown

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in America's living rooms day in, day out.

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News photos brought people face to face

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with the victims of the war: a little girl burned by napalm,

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a student killed by the National Guard

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at Kent State University in Ohio during a protest.

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In fact, these images became

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the voices of protest themselves.

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Now, images have power

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to shed light of understanding

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on suspicion, ignorance,

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and in particular -- I've given a lot of talks on this

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but I'll just show one image --

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the issue of HIV/AIDS.

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In the 1980s, the stigmatization of people with the disease

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was an enormous barrier

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to even discussing or addressing it.

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A simple act, in 1987, of the most famous woman in the world,

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the Princess of Wales, touching

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an HIV/AIDS infected baby

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did a great deal, especially in Europe, to stop that.

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She, better than most, knew the power of an image.

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So when we are confronted by a powerful image,

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we all have a choice:

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We can look away, or we can address the image.

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Thankfully, when these photos appeared in

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The Guardian in 1998,

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they put a lot of focus and attention and, in the end, a lot of money

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towards the Sudan famine relief efforts.

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Did the images change the world?

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No, but they had a major impact.

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Images often push us to question our core beliefs

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and our responsibilities to each other.

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We all saw those images after Katrina,

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and I think for millions of people

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they had a very strong impact.

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And I think it's very unlikely

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that they were far from the minds of Americans

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when they went to vote in November 2008.

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Unfortunately, some very important images

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are deemed too graphic or disturbing for us to see them.

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I'll show you one photo here,

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and it's a photo by Eugene Richards of an Iraq War veteran

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from an extraordinary piece of work,

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which has never been published, called War Is Personal.

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But images don't need to be graphic

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in order to remind us of the tragedy of war.

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John Moore set up this photo at Arlington Cemetery.

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After all the tense moments of conflict

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in all the conflict zones of the world,

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there's one photograph from a much quieter place

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that haunts me still, much more than the others.

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Ansel Adams said, and I'm going to disagree with him,

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"You don't take a photograph, you make it."

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In my view, it's not the photographer who makes the photo,

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it's you.

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We bring to each image

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our own values, our own belief systems,

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and as a result of that, the image resonates with us.

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My company has 70 million images.

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I have one image in my office.

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Here it is.

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I hope that the next time you see

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an image that sparks something in you,

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you'll better understand why,

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and I know that speaking to this audience,

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you'll definitely do something about it.

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And thank you to all the photographers.

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(Applause)