TED is a wonderful platform, a non-profit devoted organisation to spread some amazing ideas all over. Concerning mainly on three platforms Technology, Entertainment and design, it does push some splendid amount of inspiration for listeners, most of these talks are from legends from various fields. And of course we do have some of the master speakers from photography too.

Here in this post of ours, we wanted to highlight some of the 15 most inspiring TED talks in the field of photography. I am pretty sure these short talks will boost your morale and drive your passion towards photography above all humanity and would make you love what you do.

Click here to check Part 2 of TED Talks

#1 Sebastião Salgado: The Silent Drama of Photography

Economics PhD Sebastião Salgado only took up photography in his 30s, but the discipline became an obsession. His years-long projects beautifully capture the human side of a global story that all too often involves death, destruction or decay. Here, he tells a deeply personal story of the craft that nearly killed him, and shows breathtaking images from his latest work, Genesis, which documents the world’s forgotten people and places.

#2 James Nachtwey: My Photographs Bear Witness

Accepting his 2007 TED Prize, war photographer James Nachtwey shows his lifes work and asks TED to help him continue telling the story with innovative, exciting uses of news photography in the digital era.

#3  How Photography Connects Us – David Griffin

The photo director for National Geographic David Griffin knows the power of photography to connect us to our world. In a Talk filled with glorious images, he discusses how we all use photos to tell our stories.

#4 Jonathan Klein: Photos That Changed the World

Photographs do more than document history — they make it. At TED University, Jonathan Klein of Getty Images shows some of the most iconic, and talks about what happens when a generation sees an image so powerful it can’t look away — or back.

#5 Lisa Kristine: Photos that Bear Witness to Modern Slavery

For the past two years, photographer Lisa Kristine has traveled the world, documenting the unbearably harsh realities of modern-day slavery. She shares hauntingly beautiful images — miners in the Congo, brick layers in Nepal — illuminating the plight of the 27 million souls enslaved worldwide.

#6 The True Cost of Oil: Garth Lenz

What does environmental devastation actually look like? At TEDxVictoria, photographer Garth Lenz shares shocking photos of the Alberta Tar Sands mining project — and the beautiful (and vital) ecosystems under threat.

#7 Paul Nicklen: Tales of Ice-Bound Wonderlands

Diving under the Antarctic ice to get close to the much-feared leopard seal, photographer Paul Nicklen found an extraordinary new friend. Share his hilarious, passionate stories of the polar wonderlands, illustrated by glorious images of the animals who live on and under the ice.

#8 Rick Smolan: A girl, A Photograph, A Homecoming

Photographer Rick Smolan tells the unforgettable story of a young Amerasian girl, a fateful photograph, and an adoption saga with a twist.

#9 GMB Akash – Survivors

Well known documentary photographer GMB Akash talks about his project Survivors and more.

#10 iO Tillett Wright: Fifty Shades of Gay

Photographer iO Tillett Wright grew up between genders and sexualities. She’s shot 2,000 people who consider themselves somewhere on the LBGTQ spectrum and asked many: can they assign a percentage to how gay or straight they are? Most people consider themselves to exist in the grey areas of sexuality, which presents a real problem when it comes to discrimination.

#11 Jeremy Cowart – A Picture is Worth

Celebrity photographer Jeremy Cowart tells the story of Help-Portrait and the unexpected impact it had on both sides of the camera. Illustrating how it began as a simple idea that spread to a global movement in just a few months, Jeremy reminds us all that giving within your gifting can change the world.

#12 Defining Photography Through a First Person Perspective: Antonio Bolfo

Former policeman Antonio Bolfo shares with us his powerful photographs from Haiti and his time following the NYPD. His images allow us to see how a photograph can only tell one part of a story.

#13 Phil Borges: Documenting our Endangered Cultures

Photographer Phil Borges shows rarely seen images of people from the mountains of Dharamsala, India, and the jungles of the Ecuadorean Amazon. In documenting these endangered cultures, he intends to help preserve them.

#14 Ryan Lobo: Photographing the Hidden Story

Ryan Lobo has traveled the world, taking photographs that tell stories of unusual human lives. In this haunting talk, he reframes controversial subjects with empathy, so that we see the pain of a Liberian war criminal, the quiet strength of UN women peacekeepers and the perseverance of Delhi’s underappreciated firefighters.

#15 Aaron Huey: America’s Native Prisoners of War

Aaron Huey’s effort to photograph poverty in America led him to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, where the struggle of the native Lakota people — appalling, and largely ignored — compelled him to refocus. Five years of work later, his haunting photos intertwine with a shocking history lesson in this bold, courageous talk from TEDxDU.

Please check our previous Photography Video Talks posts: