What is the Most Photographed Site in the World? In the US?

Cafe Society
1

What structure or natural site is photographed more times per year than any other?

To qualify, the site in question must:
[ul]
[li]Be in a location that attracts plenty of tourists, journalists, professional photographers, and other interested parties, all bringing along their cameras and snapping away.[/li][li]Have significant aesthetic, architectural, historical, cultural or emotional relevance.[/li][li]Be a specific location that can easily fit in one’s viewfinder. IOW, London doesn’t count. But a specific site in London, such as Big Ben, would.[/li][/ul]

My nomination for most photographed site in the US is Cinderella’s Castle at Walt Disney World. Millions of tourists come through WDW every year, and I’m sure every last one of them snaps at least one photograph of the Castle.

If not the Castle, then perhaps the Statue of Liberty. However, I don’t think New York attracts the raw numbers of tourists that WDW does.

As for the most photographed site in the whole world, my money is on The Eiffel Tower.

Do any of you have any other suggestions?

2

I would also nomiate the Niagara Falls as a likely candidate. Vast tourism industry with easy access and several observation decks for easy snapshots.

3

I thought about this based on the thread title, before seeing other posts, and also came up with the Eiffel Tower. For the US, I hadn’t thought of Cinderella’s Castle, but it’s a fair bet. This site http://www.astanet.com/travel/hotspots_spring2001.pdf shows Orlando to be by far the most popular travel desitnation within the US.

Google let me down for a world site, so I’ll stick with the Eiffel Tower.

4

France is the most visited country in the world per annum, so I would agree with the guess that the Eiffel Tower is tops. (and, of course, 95% of those are photographs taken to make people appear that they’re holding the thing in their hand – or that it’s coming out of their butt.)

5

The Eiffel Tower seems a good bet internationally, but lots of photographs are taken in Italy as well.

I once heard a statistic (no cite to back it up, and it’s probably exaggerated) that so many pictures are taken in Venice every year, that if you recovered the silver off the film there would be enough to make three FA Cups (shown in the bottom left picture here. A lot of those pictures would be of the Campanile in St. Mark’s Square.

Florence Cathedral must be right up there too.

6

China Cove near Carmel in California, USA, is a very photographed place. It is on more calenders than any other landscape that I’ve ever seen. I have no definite proof to cite, although a friend of mine from there swears it’s common knowledge for them.

7

A lot of photos are shot in Times Square. I work in the area and I wonder how many times I’m in the background of peoples snapshots.

Besides the castle at DW we always take a photo by the flower garden in front that looks like Mickey Mouse.

8

The most PAINTED building in the US is Motif Number One in Rockport, MA. I know this isn’t what you asked for, but it’s a good start.

9

I haven’t found a reliable cite yet, but I’m thinking, Pyramid, or perhaps the Vatican, even the Great Wall.

We’ll find out sometime soon I suspect.

~later

10

Well, I know this doesn’t fit the OP exactly, but the most photographed event in the world is the Albuquerque Baloon Fiesta according to Kodak. A cite can be found here http://goamericanwest.com/newmexico/albuquerque/abqballoons.shtml

As far as the most photographed site goes I would think it would be the site that has the most visitors that can afford cameras. If you add in the press I’d have to say the White House would be up there. I’d say Mecca could be up there but I am not sure about how many people would take cameras to Mecca. (I am pretty ignorant about Mecca except I know a whole lot of people travel there every year)

Well, I don’t know.

Slee

11

I had a cite but the Hamsters ate my stuff, I’ll have to find it again. It basically said the Castle at Disney World in TOKYO wins the prize. It claimed D/W Japan gets more visitors than any other. The castle gets the most pictures in the most frequented tourist attraction. So, if>then>?

anyway, I’ll see if I can pull it up and link it later~

12

I remember hearing that the most photographed spot in the world was Mt. Fuji in Japan. Don’t remember where I saw that, so take that with a grain of salt.

13

I wonder if Ground Zero would qualify for the past year?

14

I was gonna say that if only for the reason that the Japanese love taking photos and I mean LOVE.

15

I’m not German (as for France, I doubt that there could be any other answer than the Eiffel tower), but I would suspect that the most photographed german site is probably theNeuschwanstein castle which appears everywhere, on posters, etc…

16

I’m not German (as for France, I doubt that there could be any other answer than the Eiffel tower), but I would suspect that the most photographed german site is probably theNeuschwanstein castle which appears everywhere, on posters, etc…

17

That’s the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Castle!
I am such a dweeb for knowing that. And I knew it without even clicking on the link. Yes, I do need a life. Why do you ask?

::slinks off, embarrassed::

18

Many consider “The Lone Cypress” http://www.mbstours.com/images/lone_cypress_tree.jpg the most photographed tree in the world.

19

BiblioCat, not only is that the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang castle, it’s also the castle that Cinderella’s castle is modeled off of!

My vote goes to the Taj Mahal for the world’s most photographed site.

20

Internationally, I don’t know. I’d bet on the Eiffel Tower if I had to guess based on the number of tourists that visit France (two couples I know both visited in the past ten months) and the fact that it’s the most well-known landmark (to Americans, at least) in Paris.

I visited New York last year and stayed near Times Square. Every day I saw dozens of people taking pictures of it, and found myself wondering how many pictures are taken in the general vicinity of Times Square every year - it’s got to be in the millions, counting movies, TV commercials, commercial photography, the number of television shows filmed there, etc.

I’d have to nominate the Grand Canyon as a contender. I used to live in northern Arizona and went there once on a random afternoon in September - there were thousands of people there, people from all over the world speaking dozens of languages. Every single one of them had a camera and took at least a dozen pictures.

The way I see it: EVERYONE who goes to the Grand Canyon takes at least one picture of it. Probably more than one. And a whole lot of people visit the Grand Canyon - 4,104,809 people in 2001 according to this site.