Here's what happened to the seven people from these iconic photographs

The right picture taken at the right time can say far more than a lengthy essay, can encapsulate the spirit of an age, or force people to empathise with the distraught and the downtrodden. Ever since the invention of the camera lens, photographers have made it their mission to document startling tales of human drama, displaying the very best and the worst that humanity has to offer. Some of these images have become so deeply ingrained in the public consciousness that it's almost impossible to imagine their larger-than-life subjects living autonomous lives outside the confines of the picture frame. Yet there's more to all of these people than just a picture. An image wordlessly sums up an event, but it tells us absolutely nothing about the specifics of the context and setting which led up to it. Nor does the photograph care to comment on the aftermath. These pictures are so famous that they come with no continuity attached, yet scratching beneath the surface of these simple portraits often reveals an intriguing biography. Scroll down to learn more about the personalities behind these iconic pictures.

In 1984, 12-year old Afghan girl Sharbat Gula was living in the

 

Nasir Bagh

 

refugee camp in Pakistan, as a result of Soviet bombing runs. She had lost both parents in a bombing run at the age of six and she and her grandmother, brother, and three sisters had trekked across the mountains to seek shelter. Journalist

 

Steve McCurry snapped a picture of the girl, whose intense stare and vivid green eyes were attention-grabbing enough to be featured in National Geographic magazine. Her face became symbolic of the victims of the conflict, and in the years to come many journalists sought and struggled to identify her. In 2002, National Geographic managed to find the now-30 year old woman in a remote region of Afghanistan. She'd returned to Afghanistan in 1992, and her identity was confirmed by

 

John Daugman

 

using

 

iris recognition. She had never seen the famous photograph until then. Last year, Gula was arrested in Pakistan for living there with forged documents

 

and spent 15 days in jail as a result.

In the midst of the Iraq war, the Western world was shocked by images of the brutal and degrading torture techniques employed by the CIA at the Abu Ghraib prison. But it was the picture of Iraqi man, Ali Shallal al-Qaisi, garbed in a ragged hood and cloak and standing on a wooden box, that evoked the most shock and outrage. Qaisi was left traumatised by his experiences there, after he was shocked with electrodes, beaten, shackled, stripped naked, starved, spit and urinated upon, and later underwent six separate surgeries to repair the damage that was done to him. Qaisi owned a Baghdad football pitch in the al-Amiriya district, where US troops used to dump bodies during the 2003 invasion. When Qaisi leaked this info to the press, he was arrested by American troops, questioned and detained. Once the story broke, a mere 11 soldiers were convicted of charges relating to all incidents at Abu Ghraib; many still believe they were following orders from the top of the military-industrial complex.

The image of the Tank Man is almost cinematic in its grandeur and its scale: the lone man with his bags of shopping stopping a column of tanks from driving into

 

Tiananmen Square. It's a picture that magnificently captures the power of passive resistance in the face overwhelming military force, and yet the identity of the man who took a stand against authority is still unknown. Many experts have since advanced theories regarding his ultimate fate. British tabloid newspaper The

 

Sunday Express claimed his name was Wang Weilin (王维林), a 19-year-old student, who was later arrested. However, the Chinese Communist Party has disputed this. Many other people have claimed that Weilin was killed or executed by secret police forces, while another theory is that he escaped to

 

Taiwan

 

where he currently works as an archaeologist. Images of the Tank Man are still censored in China to this day.

For many, this black and white image of an anxious-looking mother seems to sum up the hard times of the Great Depression. But who was this woman who embodied the profound economic collapse?

was a Cherokee-born woman, who later married

 

Cleo Owens, a 23-year-old farmer's son. They had six children together. Cleo died after the family migrated to the Sacramento Valley in California and the single mother was forced to pick cotton and shell peas, and work in bars and hospitals to support her offspring. On the day this photo was taken, Florence was travelling to the lettuce fields of the

 

Pajaro Valley when her car broke down. By the time they reached the pea-pickers camp, they learned that heavy rainfall had destroyed the crops, which meant that they would not be paid. Photographer

 

Dorothea Lange took a few snaps of the worried-looking Florence, and the rest is history.

 

Thompson's identity was not known for over 40 years, and she later stated that Lange had promised her that the pictures wouldn't be published.

 

Thompson's identity was discovered in 1978 by reporter Emmett Corrigan. She died of cancer and a heart condition in 1983.

The image of Phan Thi Kim Phuc, naked and screaming in terror after a napalm strike on her village, seemed to sum up American misgivings about the treatment of civilians in the Vietnam War. The nine-year-old girl sustained extremely serious burns on her back when photographer

 

Nick Ut snapped this iconic photo of her in 1972. In the years since, Phuc, now 54 years old, is a Canadian citizen and has used her status as a Pulitzer prize-winning subject to promote a message of peace and goodwill. She has certainly lived a remarkable life: becoming friends with prime minister

 

Phạm Văn Đồng and later establishing the Kim Phúc Foundation in the US, which provides medical and psychological assistance to child victims of war. She's since forgiven the US for the injuries she sustained, stating in 2008: "Forgiveness made me free from hatred. I still have many scars on my body and severe pain most days but my heart is cleansed. Napalm is very powerful, but faith, forgiveness, and love are much more powerful."

Chris Hondros took this picture of Samar Hassan in 2005, after her parents were shot by American soldiers who thought the vehicle was carrying insurgents or a suicide bomber. Hondros, who worked for Getty Images, was embedded with the army, publishing the shocking images of the tear-stricken child days later. These pictures forced the military to revise checkpoint procedures, but also forced us to ask how humanely Iraqi civilians were being treated during the conflict. Hassan was tracked down in 2011 and it was revealed that she had left school because she was too shy and not doing well, but hoped to return and become a doctor. It was also stated that she only left the house

 

on infrequent family excursions, mostly spending her days cleaning, listening to music and watching her Turkish soap opera, but had two friends who visited to play with dolls and chat. Yes, the art of photography has a lot to teach us about the human condition - but that story is so much richer if we know the context behind it, and it's inspiring to know that these images will be preserved forever, long after their subjects have vanished.