The Montana Fire picture is amazing.
I know this is all “eye of the beholder” stuff, and I think these were all good selections, but I never “got” why the Afghani girl from National Geographic was considered so terrific. Is it the green eyes or what? Am I not looking deep enough? It certainly is iconic though.
I never saw that photo before. However, it is now my desktop background.
On the HUB lawn at Penn State’s main campus, there’s a huge red silhouette of this pic made of steel, but no signs explaining what the heck it is. Everyone I knew called the “Fighting Red Onionhead”
While the Mona Lisa may be “arguably the most famous painting”, it’s going to draw a lot more debate if you say it’s the best. I might even argue that it’s not Leonardo’s best, just his most famous. Everyone might have a different “best”. Likewise, we might be able to eventually agree on a most famous photo, but it’s doubtful we’d get far on best. Some very good photos have been mentioned here, but I’m not sure which would be the most famous at this point (at least if you consider the whole world and not just the USA).
The Mona Lisa is almost certainly the most famous painting in the world (well, US anyway, I’ll probably get myself in trouble if I talk about other countries), and Citizen Kane tops almost every film-critic list of “best movies” I’ve ever seen. I think there is a consensus in film and painting that doesn’t really exist for photography. As this thread shows, there are many iconic photographs, but I don’t think we’ll find one that the majority of people would consistantly put on the top of their list as either the best or most famous. I feel rather certain, on the other hand, that if I did a poll of the general populace of what they think is the most famous painting, or did a poll of film critics what the best movie is, I would find a strong majority voting for Mona and Kane.
I think it is one of those portraits (this phenomenom is not limited to photography) where you instantly feel like you know the subject, you are aware that she is a real individual with her own history, experiences and dreams. At the same time in that particular situation though she represented all innocent people who had ever been displaced by war or some other catastrophe. The green eyes are striking too.
Ok, I’ll buy that; I like your explanation. Gracias.
Jesus, that one always chokes me up. It’s such a moment of pure, unadulterated, overwhelming joy.
I’ll add in the realm of sports photos one of my favorites, Muhammed Ali standing over Sonny Liston. It’s another miracle of photograpic timing: if you watch the tape, Ali doesn’t hover over Liston for more than a second, but the photo makes it look like he’s taunting Liston to get up and continue the fight. The photographer snapped his shutter at precisely the right instant.
I would imagine for most of England this photo of the 1966 World Cup winners is pretty well known.
In regards to the Ali photo, I always thought it was more striking in black and white if it’s the same one I’m thinking of.
And I don’t know anybody who hasn’t at least saw this hairy bugger
CapnPitt and Peter Morris, a guy at work found that someplace while the Montana forest fires were still going on, and sent the whole department a link to what might be the original site. I’ve lost that link, but the site said the pic was taken by a photographer who took his camera along as he was fighting the fires. He allegedly wasn’t allowed to sell it because of the firefighting rules, so he posted it for free. I have no idea if that story is true. It’s one of my wallpapers too.
I see that Laughing Lagomorph explained the appeal of the Afghan girl better than I could, so all I’ll say is that she seems to show a great mix of vulnerability, grief, and strength. And the green eyes really grab you.
I always see Moonrise, Hernandez lauded as the definitive Ansel Adams pic. (Is it just me that finds his work a teensy bit overrated, though?)
Re: the Capa pic from the Spanish Civil War, there have been persistent rumours that it was in fact staged. I read a very interesting and long essay on this somewhere on the web a while back, in which the author claimed to have discovered that it was real, as well as identifying the soldier, but I can’t find it now.
Who’s the guy in the bottom left corner? They could have used him as the spokesman for the National Dental Care plan.
Here in Philadelphia, this 1960 pic of Chuck Bednarik taking out Frank Gifford (of the hated NY Giants) for the season is pretty popular.
Not that it means anything, but I believe that Man Ray’s Glass Tears is the world’s most expensive photograph, having been sold for around $1.3 million a few years ago…
Grim
