#1 photograph?

[Colophon]

By the way, the fireman in the WTC pic is Mike Kehoe. The photo was one of 110 taken by John Labriola as he escaped.

[SuperNelson]

Another vote for earthrise.

[Spoke]

Speaking of firefighters, how about that photo of the Oklahoma City fireman cradling a dead child after the bombing of the federal building there? (Can’t find a link.)

[Spoke]

Ah. Here’s that Oklahoma City firefighter.

[commasense]

@Malodorous

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.

No, or we’d have seen them. All NASA images are in the public domain and available to anyone for free. So if there were other images of the whole earth, this one wouldn’t have been used so heavily.

Here’s why there aren’t others (from this site):

On December 7, 1972, just hours into their mission, the Apollo 17 astronauts were able to capture an amazing snapshot of the whole Earth. Although there were already pictures of Earth from previous missions, none of them showed the Earth as a perfectly round ball suspended in the vastness of outer space.

What made it possible for Apollo 17 was the relative position of Earth, the moon and the sun during the mission. Because the moon happened to be in the same direction as the sun during the outward trip, the astronauts were able to turn around and see the Earth fully illuminated by the sun.

Over the years, it’s become an icon for the environmental movement - and it’s credited with shifting our cultural perceptions of the world. It was after the picture was released that people began talking about “spaceship Earth” and the “global village.”

Apollo 17 was about 50,000 kilometers from Earth when the picture was snapped. That means this is one space photo that cannot easily be repeated. For example, the International Space Station, which orbits a mere 400 kilometers above Earth is far too close to frame the whole Earth in one image.

(BTW, the second sentence of the third paragraph is false. “Spaceship Earth” was coined by Buckminster Fuller in 1969 and “Global village” was first used by Marshall McLuhan way back in 1962. People may have had the meaning of those terms driven home by the picture – the former more so than the later, IMO – but they were in use long before the picture.)

[Malodorous]

Thanks commonsense, that’s always bothered me. I’d figured that all of the moon missions got far enough out to take a pic of the whole Earth, but I hadn’t considered that the position of the Sun would also dictate how much of the Earth would be illumniated.

[AncientHumanoid]

Definitely a great picture. Almost tied with Earthrise for me. But, the first earthrise from the surface of another planet beats it out. Imo, of course.

[ivylass]

@I Love Me

I would, for one. I hope you don’t think it is “wrong” to make a photo in that sort of situation.

No, not wrong at all, but then, I’m not a big picture-taker. Snapping a camera would have been the furthest thing from my mind that day.

[Slacker]

I immediately thought of several that have been mentioned, along with the picture of JFK looking out the window of the Oval Office (with his back to the camera). Can’t find a link to it though. I’ve seen that alluded to/spoofed many many times.

[Zebra]

How about Ansel Adams photo of Half Dome.

[Hal_Briston]

@cheddarsnax

This came immediately to mind.

As soon as I read the thread title, that’s the pic that popped into my head.

[F.U.Shakespeare]

Can anyone provide a link for this one? My googling was ineffective.

@ivylass

There’s a photo of a young firefighter going up the stairs of the WTC while everyone else is going down.

I believe he got out alive, but who the hell would think to snap a picture during that time?

[Already_in_Use]

How about these pictures, especially the second and third? They at least should get the prize for the most iconic images of the past year or so.

I was going to say “Dewey Defeats Truman,” but there are several slightly different images of that event, and no single one seems to be prevalent.

[rjk]

I don’t think anybody has mentioned the Montana Fire photo. I don’t know that I’d call it the best shot ever, but it’s certainly dramatic, and a Google search returns 12 out of 20 on the first page.

So far I’ve recognized almost all of the photos here, and agree that most are great choices. A few just don’t interest me, but that comes down to personal taste. This collection would make a great coffee-table book!

[ShibbOleth]

There’s a photo from Vietnam of some S. Vietnamese officer shooting a prisoner in the head at point blank range. It’s very graphic and disturbing. Probably as famous as the little girl with her clothes burnt off.

[commasense]

Okay, who wants to begin the pile-on on ShibbOleth for not clicking the link in post #10?

I guess it’s me.

[AncientHumanoid]

It would help if people gave a short description instead of just labling “this.”

We tend to lose track or overlook the 13th “this” posted.

[commasense]

And who would like to pile on cheddarsnax for not being more explicit in post #10?

Well, it looks like NoClueBoy wins!

Thanks for playing everyone!

[ShibbOleth]

@NoClueBoy

It would help if people gave a short description instead of just labling “this.”

We tend to lose track or overlook the 13th “this” posted.

I thought that Cheddarsnax’s link was to the green-eyed Afghani woman, so didn’t bother to click on it because I remember it. My apologies, but some kind of description does help.

[vl_mungo]

The picture of the famous flag raising on Iwo Jima was actually the second time the flag was raised on Mt. Suribachi. The first time it looked like this,