Bruno Barbey, Naita Demonstration, 1971 (published 1972)
My Story: You know immediately what this is — the Eternal Struggle. Light vs. Darkness, Haves vs. Have-nots, Good vs. Evil, Right vs. Left, Thesis and Antithesis — whatever the Struggle is to you (and it can be different things at different times) this picture illustrates it.
The Facts: Taken by Magnum photographer Bruno Barbey in 1971 at a demonstration against the building of Narita Airport near Tokyo. Farmland had been seized via eminent domain for airport construction and farmers began protesting. They were joined by crowds of youth. Japan was into its Flush Times then and the demonstrators are well-organized, uniformed, affluent, and probably soon to enter a lifetime of work at one of Japan’s major corporations. Airport construction was delayed, the Japanese goverment became somewhat more considerate, and the world wagged on.
Those lance-like things look medieval.
Yes! Like pikes or something. Nowadays they will take away anything that looks like a stick including signs sometimes.