# Is the flag raising on Iwo Jima the most copied photo in history?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-flag-raising-on-iwo-jima-the-most-copied-photo-in-history/651210
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [February 24, 2013, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-flag-raising-on-iwo-jima-the-most-copied-photo-in-history/651210 "2013-02-24T00:02:45Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Penrose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penrose)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2013, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-flag-raising-on-iwo-jima-the-most-copied-photo-in-history/651210/1 "2013-02-24T00:02:45Z")
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](http://www.usni.org/iwo-jima-parody-photos) of it been recreated with everything from legos to cake, as well as appearing on the Simpsons, Dr. Who and album covers
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2013, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-flag-raising-on-iwo-jima-the-most-copied-photo-in-history/651210/2 "2013-02-24T01:10:23Z")
The Mona Lisa has been copied and parodied far more than any photo.
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### Author:  [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2013, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-flag-raising-on-iwo-jima-the-most-copied-photo-in-history/651210/3 "2013-02-24T01:27:22Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#):
>
> 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.
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### Author:  [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2013, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-flag-raising-on-iwo-jima-the-most-copied-photo-in-history/651210/4 "2013-02-24T01:28:42Z")
The Spirit of '76 may also be a contender for most copied/parodied paintings.
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### Author:  [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2013, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-flag-raising-on-iwo-jima-the-most-copied-photo-in-history/651210/5 "2013-02-24T01:43:58Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#):
>
> The Mona Lisa has been copied and parodied far more than any photo.
This’ll blow your mind – [Leonardo apparently got in on the action himself!](http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/02/18/second-mona-lisa-deemed-authentic/)
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2013, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-flag-raising-on-iwo-jima-the-most-copied-photo-in-history/651210/6 "2013-02-24T01:56:34Z")
> [@Sailboat](#):
>
> This’ll blow your mind – [Leonardo apparently got in on the action himself!](http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/02/18/second-mona-lisa-deemed-authentic/)
I’ve always loved [this one](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-A0y7VOSPuv4/TflygCWQAbI/AAAAAAAAARQ/uTMkcnCSQaw/s1600/Gallery+of+the+Louvre.jpg) for two reasons:
1. It was made before the Mona Lisa became an icon (you may have to search to see it).
2. The artist was Samuel F. B. Morse – inventor of the telegraph.
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### Author:  [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2013, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-flag-raising-on-iwo-jima-the-most-copied-photo-in-history/651210/7 "2013-02-24T01:58:27Z")
It was also [copied](http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Seizure_of_Coruscant) 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](http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/The_Essential_Atlas). Still pretty cool)
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### Author:  [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2013, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-flag-raising-on-iwo-jima-the-most-copied-photo-in-history/651210/8 "2013-02-24T02:28:18Z")
Here are parodies of the Abbey Road cover:
> **[The Beatles: Abbey Road Album Cover Parodies](http://www.amiright.com/album-covers/abbey-road-parodies/)**
>
> The Beatles: Abbey Road Album Cover Parodies. A list of all the groups that have released album covers that look like the The Beatles Abbey Road album.
Half the Beatles fans who ever visited Abbey Road studios in London shot their own parody photograph.
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### Author:  [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2013, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-flag-raising-on-iwo-jima-the-most-copied-photo-in-history/651210/9 "2013-02-24T02:47:51Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2013, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-flag-raising-on-iwo-jima-the-most-copied-photo-in-history/651210/10 "2013-02-24T03:22:19Z")
Here’s a webpage with copies of the standard evolution of man drawing and with parodies of that drawing:
[http://www.google.com/search?q=evolution+of+man+parodies&hl=en&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=poYpUePDFZLO0QHBhICAAQ&ved=0CDwQsAQ&biw=1280&bih=664](http://www.google.com/search?q=evolution+of+man+parodies&hl=en&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=poYpUePDFZLO0QHBhICAAQ&ved=0CDwQsAQ&biw=1280&bih=664)
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### Author:  [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2013, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-flag-raising-on-iwo-jima-the-most-copied-photo-in-history/651210/11 "2013-02-24T03:51:31Z")
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](https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&sugexp=les%3B&gs_rn=4&gs_ri=psy-ab&tok=Ejezs0QZuFvZ0a9w1SYKGg&cp=7&gs_id=q&xhr=t&q=tank+man&safe=off&biw=1410&bih=738&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&wrapid=tlif136167728511810&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=5ospUaHhJfGP0QHu3YGoAw). 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!
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### Author:  [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2013, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-flag-raising-on-iwo-jima-the-most-copied-photo-in-history/651210/12 "2013-02-24T04:29:26Z")
Was going to mention the famous photograph of Che, but I see the OP has already considered it.
[This photo](http://images.nationalgeographic.com/wpf/media-live/photos/000/009/cache/earth-full_940_600x450.jpg) 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.
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### Author:  [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2013, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-flag-raising-on-iwo-jima-the-most-copied-photo-in-history/651210/13 "2013-02-24T06:15:35Z")
I would have thought the first photograph known — Nicéphore Niépce’s [View from the Window](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/View_from_the_Window_at_Le_Gras) 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.
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### Author:  [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2013, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-flag-raising-on-iwo-jima-the-most-copied-photo-in-history/651210/14 "2013-02-24T06:25:00Z")
> [@Simplicio](#):
>
> [This photo](http://images.nationalgeographic.com/wpf/media-live/photos/000/009/cache/earth-full_940_600x450.jpg) is probably in the running…
Or [Earthrise](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a8/NASA-Apollo8-Dec24-Earthrise.jpg) taken from Apollo 8.
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### Author:  [@Dahu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dahu)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2013, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-flag-raising-on-iwo-jima-the-most-copied-photo-in-history/651210/15 "2013-02-24T11:23:01Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#):
>
> Here are parodies of the Abbey Road cover:
>
> [The Beatles: Abbey Road Album Cover Parodies](http://www.amiright.com/album-covers/abbey-road-parodies/)
>
> Half the Beatles fans who ever visited Abbey Road studios in London shot their own parody photograph.
And they still do.
> **[Abbey Road Studios](https://www.abbeyroad.com/Crossing/)**
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### Author:  [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2013, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-flag-raising-on-iwo-jima-the-most-copied-photo-in-history/651210/16 "2013-02-24T11:39:06Z")
> [@Oakminster](#):
>
> The Spirit of '76 may also be a contender for most copied/parodied paintings.
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.
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### Author:  [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2013, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-flag-raising-on-iwo-jima-the-most-copied-photo-in-history/651210/17 "2013-02-24T17:31:17Z")
\*\*Is the flag raising on Iwo Jima the most copied photo in history
\*\*Perhaps in the U.S. Certainly not elsewhere.
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### Author:  [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2013, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-flag-raising-on-iwo-jima-the-most-copied-photo-in-history/651210/18 "2013-02-24T17:41:51Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@Shmendrik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shmendrik)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2013, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-flag-raising-on-iwo-jima-the-most-copied-photo-in-history/651210/19 "2013-02-24T18:03:35Z")
> [@Claverhouse](#):
>
> I would have thought the first photograph known — Nicéphore Niépce’s [View from the Window](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/View_from_the_Window_at_Le_Gras) 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.
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.
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2013, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-flag-raising-on-iwo-jima-the-most-copied-photo-in-history/651210/20 "2013-02-24T18:12:26Z")
> [@Claverhouse](#):
>
> I would have thought the first photograph known — Nicéphore Niépce’s [View from the Window](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/View_from_the_Window_at_Le_Gras) would have been _seen_ far more than any other;
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.
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