Yes, I believe an photograph can inspire change. I believe that a photograph can incite change much easier than an article or a paper, because it has been said before and I will say it again now, one photograph can say a thousand words. Unfortunately, even though it is much easier for a photograph to effect change than written text, they both suffer the short attention span of people in the 21st century. While an image may inspire some large number of people to do something, in a week or less, that number of the inspired people will no longer be interested and will have moved onto the next big issue. While I do believe that an image can inspire change, I don't believe that it is possible for an image to really effect change. Perhaps a series of images of an atrocity given to the public over a period of time could do something because the people would stay interested, but there have not been many if any images that have worked like that.
This image was taken by Nick Ut in 1972. It was shot during the Vietnam War after a South Vietnamese Skyraider had torched her village with napalm. The naked girl running away is Phan Thi Kim Phuc, she had pulled all of her clothes off because they were on fire. You can't see her burns in this picture but she still carries the scars today and suffers from severe nerve damage. This image became an iconic symbol for the the people who disagreed with the Vietnam War.
This image absolutely makes you feel something and I am sure it effected the way people viewed the war but I do not believe it ultimately did anything to really change anything that wasn't already being done.
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