Some rhetorical questions about iconic images

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TEZillman

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It's a cold and snowy night in Chicagoland, so I thought I'd throw out some general interest questions to discuss:

There are several dozen photos that everyone who has ever taken a basic photography history or appreciation class would recognize as "iconic" for their particular genre of photography. Photos that exemplify the highest reaches of technical and artistic ability on the part of the photographer. It's seems to me that society has stopped adding to these or replacing them. Is it possible for anyone to create an iconic image in the 21st Century? I should qualify this, in the area of photojournalism, for example, there are events recorded daily and yet one photo of the Hindenburg Disaster by Murray Becker is always trotted out as the icon. Why has this photo "held the record" for 70 years? What would it take to unseat it? It is a fine photogragh, but is it the ultimate in photojournalism? Perhaps I am looking at this from a purely American viewpoint. Please point out if things are different in your country.

If we were to retire all of the iconic images and replace them with photos made in the past 25 years, what photos would you nominate in whatever catagory you choose to take their place?
 
Very interesting.

I'll be thinking about this.

The photo that springs to mind is the National Geographic cover pic of the young Afghan woman with the big eyes. But I'm not sure if it fits in the requested timeframe.
 
They happen all the time. Think about 9/11.

Just a few month ago the San Diego fire-fighter under cover photo
falls in this category, for me.

Roland.
 
I'm not so certain that we will see a few great, iconic images from here on out. I don't mean to imply that there isn't great photography being made these days, it's really the issue that we are media-saturated with images more so than at any time in previous human history. Something like 1/4 of the internet is images, I've read. So it's really difficult to expect just a few great ones to stand out from all the background noise, so to speak.

Although, as a lad in the early 1970s I recall seeing a National Lampoon magazine with a picture of 'The Burning of the Hindenbird;' it was a chicken leg, poised in mid-descent, fireball erupting out of its top. 🙂

~Joe
 
Actually, there's a really wonderful new book on just this question: "No Caption Needed: Iconic Photographs, Public Culture, and Liberal Democracy" by Robert Hariman and John Louis Lucaites. It looks at photos of the Hindenburg and 9/11, among others, and explores what gives images like this such a long afterlife. It might not answer the question, but it does give a lot of food for thought.

I don't have a particular iconic image that I'd vote for at the moment (although I agree that Salgado has a number in his Migrations book, too), but for myself I've been completely haunted by the cover photograph of Alex Webb's book, Istanbul, for weeks.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/s...&index=books&field-author=John Louis Lucaites
 
OK, The time period was totally random, so feel free to expand or contract it a bit. I guess I was trying to think of images that have been made fairly recently and that have regularly been held up as an example of the best of their genre. I could think of some from the 70s, but was at a loss after then. Photos of Monica Lewinski or OJ Simpson parading around with a pack of lawyers may stick in one's memory, but they probably aren't the height of photojournalism.

I was thinking outside the realm of photojournalism as well and didn't mean to limit things by my example. Are there fashion or fine art or landscape or street photos that have been done that should get more recognition?

9/11 has been mentioned a couple times, but for me, there is no one photo that stands out. There's like a montage of photos that go through my mind. Of course we Americans all saw each one about 100 times a day in the following week, so that's not too surprising. Many great photos where made that day, but there's no single one that stands out for me. To tell you the truth, I don't recall ever seeing "The Falling Man" before now. Thanks for the link.

Thanks also for the tip on the book, it sounds like an interesting read
 
It's impossible NOT to have iconic images, images that speak of and to the human spirit. As long as the human condition is available and on display (and when isn't it?), as long as "stuff happens" (and when doesn't it?), as long as there is someone with a camera there to photograph it (and that's increasing everyday), there will be images, and some of those will speak directly to everyone (everywhere, or in a particular culture).

I prefer smaller more personal images, anyway. Looking back over photographic history, photographers like HCB had many big iconic images, but that never diminished the works of other photographers. I was looking at Sudek images the other night and was thoroughly enjoying his "view from my studio window" series.


.
 
Iconic image is not timeless. It represents some issue that have had a great impact on the society, localy or globaly. It can be country dependent or global. Today, the huge communication channels emit many iconic images, but we are oversaturated of them and hardly can choose something iconic.
 
lZr said:
Today, the huge communication channels emit many iconic images, but we are oversaturated of them and hardly can choose something iconic.
Click to expand...

I disagree. There are few truly iconic images among the millions of images circulated around the world. I believe my example above is one. Here is another:

http://digitaljournalist.org/issue0410/adams20.html

and another:

http://www.ojodigital.com/foro/showthread.php?t=141329

and another:

http://www.shorpy.com/files/images/8b29516u.jpg

and another:

http://www.artandperception.com/v01/wp-content/uploads/2007/04/molotovman_susan-meiselas.JPG

They become iconic because of what they come to mean.
 
Pablito, these images are globaly known icons, but I can show you same type of images and better from my country. May be you don't know them, because they were not globaly shown by respectful journalists
 
Last edited:
lZr said:
Pablito, these images are globaly known icons, but I can show you same type of images and better from my country. May be you don't know them, because they were not globaly shown by respectful journalists
Click to expand...


That is an interesting thought, and quite probably true. But surely the purpose of photo-journalism is to create images that deserve, and achieve, wide publication and bring attention to important issues?
 
Sure, no doubt about, Chris, but publications are widely known also as political issue, and as so, sometimes pushed deep into the drawer
 
Give it some time, 21st century have been around for only 7 years. All iconic images withstood test of time, am sure some of the current ones will do too.
 
One that comes to my mind is the shooting of an alleged Vietcong by the south Vietnamese General Loan I saw it on TV when I was a kid and it haunted me.

A strong indication would be for me right now that as soon as the picture is mentioned it pops up in peoples memories.
Those are the pics that came up as soon as I read about them in this thread:
-The Hindenburg
-The Challenger Explosion
-The Afghan Girls with green eyes

Some recent examples (Which came into my mind in a matter of seconds):
-young people in a Cabrio taking pics with their cellphones in destryed Beirut
-The second plane hist the WTC seems to be a still from video
-American soldiers preparing Saddams statue to be torn down.
 
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