Scientists once did a study where the only feature of a person’s face you could see were their eyes. The goal was to see if the person viewing the eyes could guess the emotion. Sure enough, the results were staggering and people accurately guessed far more often than not. Perhaps this lends credence to the saying about being the window to our soul. You be the judge.
1. Amazement – Check out the exact moment Harold Whittles, born deaf, hears for the first time after being fitted with a hearing aid.
2. Courage – Left for dead after her Taliban father sold her into marriage, and even returned her to her husband after severe abuse and the removal of her nose and ears.
3. Madness – A Shell Shocked soldier in a trench during the Battle of Courcelette in mid-September 1916.
4. Panic – A crushing loss in a 1986 soccer match in England resulted in the deaths of 96 people and injuries to 766 others.
5. Envy – Sophia Loren has a envious eye on Jayne Mansfield at a 20th Century Fox party thrown in Sophia Loren’s honor April 12th, 1957.
6. Hatred – Goebbels smiled at him until he learned that Eisenstaedt was Jewish – a moment Eisenstaedt captured in this photo.
7. Defeat – Red Army soldier marches a German soldier into captivity after the Battle of Stalingrad.
8. Shame – After WWII, French women who “consorted” with German soliders weren’t put to death, but shunned instead.
9. Suffering – Nguyen Thi Ly, 9, suffers from Agent Orange disabilities. During the Vietnam War, the U.S. military sprayed some 12 million gallons of Agent Orange herbicide over Vietnam.
10. Peace – The soldier in the photo is unknown but he is with the 173rd Airborne Brigade Battalion on defense duty at Phuc Vinh airstrip in South Vietnam.
11. Awe – Children here love puppet shows, even in 1963 Paris. I wonder if Miss Piggy is there?
12. Deception – An Asahi Shimbun cameraman took this photo on the day before the departure of the 72nd Shinbu Corps from Bansei Air Base for their Kamikaze (Divine Wind) mission in Okinawa.
13. Fatigue – Check out this emaciated American war prisoner as he lies on a cot after his liberation from German prison camp by Allied forces.
14. Fear – A 15 year old German soldier, Hans-Georg Henke, cries after being captured by the US 9th Army in Rechtenbach, Germany, on April 3, 1945.
15. Joy – She was liberated from imprisonment in 1945.
16. Innocence – This photo is real. The blue eyes and dark skin probably represents Ocular Albinism or Juvenile uveitis. Both conditions cause the pigment of the iris to be less dense.
17. Caution – Sharbat Gula was orphaned during the Soviet Union’s bombing of Afghanistan and sent to the Nasir Bagh refugee camp in Pakistan in 1984.
18. Acceptance – All 28,000 Jews from Vinnitsa and its surrounding areas were massacred, with this man being the last one before being buried in the mass grave.
19. Lost Innocence – He’s an 8 year old Syrian rebel. Seriously.
20. Relief – Heart surgeon after 23-hour-long (successful) heart transplant. His assistant is sleeping in the corner.
21. Despair – This woman was starving to death on the streets of the Warsaw ghetto.
(H/T: Bored Panda)
Each of these photos perfectly expresses the foremost thought in the person’s mind. From fear to amazement, the connection you make with these long dead figures is just as clear as anything I’ve experienced in my real life.
