Which is the most famous photograph in history, in your opinion?

[ferider]

Maybe in photographic circles Afghan Girl is shown a lot, but outside of it and outside of NG publishing it's nowhere near as big as Che's portrait. Go to any tourist town in the world and you'll be confronted a zillion tshirts, towels, hats, underwear, posters and god knows what else with his mug on it, most likely next to Bob Marley's and a Cannabis leaf.
Iwo Jima is more of an image that's been widely used in the States but nowhere near to the same extent outside.

That's a very western perspective. More than half of the world population, a big part of which with communist background cares neither for Bob Marley nor for Che. Don't take this as judgement please, just looking at the world from an Eastern perspective. And Iwo Jima has much meaning in the East as well - of course very different from what it means in the US.

Roland.

 

[Sparrow]

I think that Joe Rosenthal's iconic photograph

"Raising the flag on Iwo Jima"

would deserve that accolade.It is one of the most reproduced photographs in photographic history.

See:-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raising...ag_on_Iwo_Jima
__________________

My pick would have to transcend political/national bias, unless it is generalized like the man facing off a tank image.

simply news my friends; Che is an ideal now, it's transcended the reality of its time and place and become an Icon for youth not bound by petty national prejudices

 

[FrankS]

simply news my friends; Che is an ideal now, it's transcended the reality of its time and place and become an Icon for youth not bound by petty national prejudices

I agree .

 

[FUJINON]

My pick would have to transcend political/national bias, unless it is generalized like the man facing off a tank image.

My choice is not of political/national bias.I am not a U.S. citizen and I was born and bred and live in the United Kingdom of 100% English descent.I use the ID. "Fujinon" because I think that Fujinon lenses are exceptional optics.The photograph is well known in the UK.

 

[mackigator]

For straight famousness I go with Che. I think others have done actual research on the spread of that image and it is vast - recognizable across many, many culture and language barriers.

Che image's "famousness" includes T-Shirts and all other derivative representations - not just photo reprints. Thus he wins not because the image represents a stronger meaning than the others in this thread, but because it has been spread far and wide. That portrait seems to be just the right blend of message + cool.

http://images.google.com/images?hl=...shirt&gbv=2&aq=f&aqi=g1g-m1&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=

If we were talking about images that altered the course of events, or images that had the strongest meaning, or images that captured the spirit of a generation, I don't think Che scores as highly.

 

[Soothsayerman]

I think the first photo of the whole earth from space taken by Apollo in 1972 easily. It immediately transcended everything.

 

[bobbyrab]

I think the first photo of the whole earth from space taken by Apollo in 1972 easily. It immediately transcended everything.

Would anyone be able to identify the first one from all the subsequent images of earth? Therefore, monumental as it was, it can not be the most famous image.

 

[JeffGreene]

The Times Square kiss comes to mind, along with the Iwo Jima flag raising. I suppose it may vary with your generation.

I second you here!

 

[gb hill]

How about your pick for most famous/significant/important photo?

Marilyn Monroe 🙂

 

[kbg32]

Forgot where the statistics came from, Frank, but I seem to remember that the 2 most reproduced photos are "Afghan Girl" and "Flag Raising over Iwo Jima". Certainly not the Che Guevara portrait (too small of an audience).

Roland.

I would think there is more than one "most famous", but to consider the Che portrait as "too small" of an audience, is in all due respect, off the mark. Maybe Che is not the most famous photograph, but alongside Robert Indiana's "Love" painting, I would bet they are the two most iconographic reproduced images in the last 50-60 years.

 

[Soothsayerman]

Would anyone be able to identify the first one from all the subsequent images of earth? Therefore, monumental as it was, it can not be the most famous image.

Hmm, good point I suppose.

... then it could be the 1978 bikini poster of cheryl tiegs or the 1981 picture of nastassja kinski and the snake, both of which sold over 2 million copies each!!

Ah well, so much for idealism.

 

[sevo]

Would anyone be able to identify the first one from all the subsequent images of earth? Therefore, monumental as it was, it can not be the most famous image.

If only because it was far from the first - 1972 was the year of the last Apollo flights. And pictures of earth from similar distance had been made (arguably by Russian robots) even before Apollo 11.

 

[andrewmore]

The photograph by John Hedgecoe of Arnold Machin's sculpture of Queen Elizabeth II which was based upon a John Hedgcoe photograph of Her Majesty used as the basis of the 'definitive' (i.e. everyday) UK postage stamps is almost certainly the most reproduced photograph in history with many millions of stamps having been printed. Whether it is significant is another matter.

Regards


Andrew More

 

[ornate_wrasse]

For me, it is Joe Rosenthal's photograph of the raising of the flag on Iwo Jima. In addition to the raw emotion brought up by viewing the photograph is the story of how the photograph came to be.

The photograph and the story behind it inspired me to read the best selling book written by the son of one of the flag raisers and to see both movies on the battle of Iwo Jima.

Perhaps I'm prejudiced as my father fought in WWII in the Pacific (not on the island of Iwo Jima but on the island of Peleliu) but I do believe it is one of the most famous photographs in history.

Ellen

 

[Sparrow]

If only because it was far from the first - 1972 was the year of the last Apollo flights. And pictures of earth from similar distance had been made (arguably by Russian robots) even before Apollo 11.

... has Yuri Aleksey Gagarin (hero of the Soviet Union) been forgotten so soon? or did he simply slip down a convenient memory hole?

 

[Ron (Netherlands)]

Important/significant?

Fox-Talbot's Latticed Window being the first negative would surely stand a good chance in that/those categories.

Guess you mean the window shot by Joseph Nicѐphore Niѐpce, the first maintained photo shot around 1826/27 from his window. Quite a few years back I went to his countryhouse in Saint-Loup-de-Varennes near Chalon-sur-Saône, in France but one wasn't allowed to walk around the premises, so I couldn't get a catch of that window 🙁.

There is a 1952 reproduction of Kodak Laboratories - see the below post of Gabriel M.A.
Nice story about the 'first' photo you may find here: http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/exhibitions/permanent/wfp/

Although an important photo from a pure technical-historic point of view - it led to the famous photo-process of Daguerre, my vote goes to the photo of CHE.

 

[Sparrow]

Hmm, good point I suppose.

... then it could be the 1978 bikini poster of cheryl tiegs or the 1981 picture of nastassja kinski and the snake, both of which sold over 2 million copies each!!

Ah well, so much for idealism.

not to mention in here the UK that tennis girl scratching her bum 🙂 or that chap holding the baby ... all products of their day I think

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

I think that, without a doubt, the most famous is the mostest oldest of thest allest:

 

[alistair.o]

^^^ Needs a new toner cartridge 😛

 

[Silva Lining]

The Turin Shroud?