Several photos have been reproduced millions of times (Che Guevara’s faces seems to be on lots of t-shirts), but is there any other photo that has been the inspiration for as many tributes and parodies as the Marines at Iwo Jima? This interesting collection has many examples of it been recreated with everything from legos to cake, as well as appearing on the Simpsons, Dr. Who and album covers
The Mona Lisa has been copied and parodied far more than any photo.
Yes, but the OP asked specifically about photos, not paintings.
I think that may be the correct answer. Another one that comes quickly to mind for me is the Abbey Road cover photo.
The Spirit of '76 may also be a contender for most copied/parodied paintings.
This’ll blow your mind – Leonardo apparently got in on the action himself!
I’ve always loved this one for two reasons:
- It was made before the Mona Lisa became an icon (you may have to search to see it).
- The artist was Samuel F. B. Morse – inventor of the telegraph.
It was also copied in the Star Wars X-Wing series, when the New Republic retook Coruscant. (It wasn’t actually used in any actual novel, but in a guide book. Still pretty cool)
Here are parodies of the Abbey Road cover:
Half the Beatles fans who ever visited Abbey Road studios in London shot their own parody photograph.
I know only three copies: the one at Washington DC, a cartoon replacing the flag with a rose, and a photo shopped version depicting gay rights.
Here’s a webpage with copies of the standard evolution of man drawing and with parodies of that drawing:
Although it was almost 50 years later, in a way that means it may have been reproduced much more often in a shorter span of time, but I’d put a vote in for Tienanmen Square’s Tank Man. Interesting that even though the two pictures are nearly a half century apart, and set in two very different societies/situations, they have so much in common!
Was going to mention the famous photograph of Che, but I see the OP has already considered it.
This photo is probably in the running for the most frequently reproduced photograph (look around, nine times out of ten when you see a photograph of the Earth, its that one), though it isn’t really “spoofed” very much.
And going to other Communist leaders, Mao has sort of an iconic picture that’s reproduced , amongst a lot of other places, on Chinese Money. Taken in aggregate, that’s almost certainly the most frequently reproduced photo in history. Its kinda hard to tell if they’re all takes on the same photo or not, though, since there are a lot of very similar head shots where he has the same facial expression and is wearing his usual Mao suit.
I would have thought the first photograph known — Nicéphore Niépce’s View from the Window would have been seen far more than any other; although it does not lend itself to parody or manipulation, apart from it being famous in it’s own right, but also since it appears in each history of photography, and is 18 — freaking — 26.
1/ He did make an earlier still surviving photograph, but that was only recently discovered so is not as famous.
2/ The inventor of photography started his researches the year his King, Louis XVI, was murdered.
Or Earthrise taken from Apollo 8.
And they still do.
http://www.abbeyroad.com/Crossing/
I doubt that very very much. Munch’s The Scream will be way ahead of a painting I have neither heard of nor seen before today.
**Is the flag raising on Iwo Jima the most copied photo in history
**Perhaps in the U.S. Certainly not elsewhere.
For the Abbey Road crossing, I’ve heard it’s a traffic nuisance and that it’s a wonder more fans don’t get run over.
Since the vast majority of people don’t read histories of photography, I think it’s fair to say that it’s not even in the top 1000 famous photographs.
Heck, I’m a photographer and I’ve never even seen that photo. I personally would have guessed the Windows XP desktop photo for “most seen.” You know, the green field/hill and sky?
As for most copied? I would really doubt it’s the Iwo Jima photo. I personally have not really seen that many versions of it. But other than Abbey Road, I really don’t have any better guesses.