Same here. Although almost all of these pictures are easily recognizable.
I was going to suggest the photo of the busboys gathered round in prayer after Robert Kennedy’s assassination (you know what I mean), but I guess not, since I can’t freaking find it.
Great question.
Photos that immediately come to mind:
Of the bunch, I would think the Che Guevara photo would probably be the most internationally recognized.
There is only one possible to both questions. And a third unasked question.
The best, most famous, and most important photograph ever is…
If there’s any correlation between popularity and most requested, then it’s the picture of Nixon meeting Elvis.
http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/nsa/elvis/elnix.html
(For the curious, here’s more detail on the meeting from the official U.S. Archive site.)
If we’re talking about quality of images, my nomination for greatest portrait is Philippe Halsman’s image of Albert Einstein, which is pretty famous, too, and hasn’t been mentioned above.
Cisco writes:
> Among the general population maybe (imdb), but I’ve never known a film
> scholar that thought it was really worth mentioning.
Oh, come on, that’s wildly overstated. For instance, look at the Sight and Sound 1992 poll of film critics:
http://listsofbests.com/list/83/
Yes, Citizen Kane comes out on top, but The Godfather is fourth.
Or look at The Village Voice’s poll of film critics:
http://listsofbests.com/list/44/
Again, Citizen Kane does come out on top, but The Godfather comes out twelfth.
If you’d merely said that critics tend to rate Citizen Kane higher than The Godfather, that’s a reasonable statement, but “I’ve never known a film scholar that thought it was really worth mentioning” is hopelessly over the top.
Excuse me, I meant to say the 2002 poll.
While there are many historical photos that could be contenders, (one I didn’t notice mentioned was MLK, Jr.'s assassination), I honestly don’t think any of them are THE most famous.
My pick for most famous photo? The cover of Abbey Road.
Everyone recognizes it, and it’s probably been spoofed as much as American Gothic.
I’ve seen this one before but it doesn’t really stand out as iconic like the other ones mentioned here do. This, I think, is the most famous pic of Churchill (and others).
Also, for reasons I’ve never understood, this picture from the Apollo 17 mission(rather then Earthrise) is probably the pic of the Earth from space that I see recreated the most. It has always struck me as odd that with all the Apollo missions, this one pic is reproduced so much more then any other Earth pic.
Is this pic (“city hall kiss”) not as famous as I thought. It hasn’t come up yet but is probably one of my favorites. here
Any number of pictures from the Japanese surrender on the Missouri.
Though I’ve heard the POW returning from Vietnam photo highly recommended.
Well, I happen to think that The Godfather is a hopelessly overrated, mediocre movie, and it is true that I have never known a film scholar that thought it was worth mentioning (and I’ve known several, so I’m not playing with semantics here.)
Regardless, I don’t think this is the place to debate it. Open a new thread if you want.
I think maybe that page has been editing. I’m seeing a logo, not a picture.
Casablanca doesn’t make either list? I find that surprising – I always thought it was generally regarded as one of the greatest films of all time. Am I wrong?
That is an interesting choice. I am a great fan of photography and that is one of the enduring images of my youth - people know the licence plate on the car, who is in step, who is wearing what etc; but because it is an album cover it wouldn’t have crossed my mind as a photograph. Probably the only one that eventually would have is The Clash only because it was voted best ever rock photo.
Doh!!, I’ll try again. Here is the picture of Earth from space that I’m talking about. Pay attention whenever they show a non-specific pic of the Earth on TV or in books or whatnot, this one is almost always the one they show. Always seemed strange to me why this one is so iconic when the moon missions must’ve taken many similar pictures.
I hope if I ever get photographed at a massacre, I’ll have had the foresight to wear fringe and Beatle boots.
I second Che, the kid in front of the tank at Tiananmen Square, Abbey Road (and how about Sgt. Pepper while we’re at it?), Marilyn au naturel, and (heh) Goatse. And how about Jack Ruby shooting Lee Harvey Oswald?
Cisco writes:
> Well, I happen to think that The Godfather is a hopelessly overrated, mediocre
> movie, and it is true that I have never known a film scholar that thought it was
> worth mentioning (and I’ve known several, so I’m not playing with semantics
> here.)
>
> Regardless, I don’t think this is the place to debate it. Open a new thread if you
> want.
Oh, come on, Cisco, I was the one who made a reasonably nuanced statement about the relative placement of Citizen Kane and The Godfather in the opinions of most film critics. If you had replied by simply saying that Citizen Kane is generally rated higher in critic’s opinions than The Godfather, you would have made a reasonable statement. You might even persuade me of the truth of that statement. But when you claim that you’ve never known a film scholar who thought The Godfather was worth mentioning, you’re either showing you don’t know much about the general trend of critical opinion or you’re confusing your own opinion with the general critical opinion.
Incidentally, at no point did I ever state my own view about the relative merit of the two films. That’s irrelevant to the statement that I made. I’m not remotely interested in debating that with you. You were the one who started the debate about the relative worth of the two films. Start your own thread if you want to discuss it. I won’t participate in it.
In general, I’m not interested in discussing my opinions on the SDMB. I find that such threads merely give people the opportunity to beat up on me for having opinions. I was making a factual statement about the average opinion of film critics about those two films. You may well be right that Citizen Kane is rated better on average by most film critics. That’s a simple factual statement that can be settled by reference to evidence.
This has been mentioned but not linked to yet:
Capa
Also mentioned but not linked to is this Afghan girl. This image trully went global. I’ve seen copies of it in backstreet Thai markets:
Eyes
Here is another very famous photographic image (which was, incidently, also used as an album cover by Rage Against the Machine).
Whn the Victory Kiss was mentioned, I thought immediately and erroneously of Doisneau’s The Kiss on the Sidewalk. This might be a US/Europe thing. Personally I have never seen the first, and have seen the latter thousands of times.
Anecdotally, though I’m not sure of the provenance of the picture, the firefighter going up the stairwell of the WTC was almost certainly taken by an evacuee on a digital camera. The quality wasn’t amazing, and it isn’t a ‘good’ photograph in that respect, but his expression spoke volumes: exhausted, fearful, yet determined. It was an amazingly powerful image, and was featured in full-page on the front of the UK’s The Mirror newspaper, with a follow-up article a few days later with the headline HE’S ALIVE!
That said, I’m shocked nobody’s yet mentioned the bird playing tennis with an itchy bumcheek and no knickers on.
Damn, beaten to it at the last 
My votes:
Fame:
As for the best, just about all of the finalists in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest blow me away… visiting that exhibition is always a highpoint of the year!
