IT’S NOT OFTEN THAT A picture changes the world, but the image of a 13-year-old boy shot by police during the June 16, 1976, student uprising in Soweto, South Africa, did. In preserving a moment of naked horror, photographer Sam Nzima, who died at age 83 on May 12, produced a potent weapon in the fight against apartheid: evidence of its brutality.
On that day, Nzima set out to cover what was supposed to be a peaceful protest. But when police opened fire, he captured the carnage with a singular image of a bloodied boy in the arms of a visibly distraught teenager, his sister wailing at his side. Few local papers ran the photo, for fear of angering authorities, but the next day it was splashed on front…
