And recently the anniversary of the retaking (march 16) of Iwo Jima (see Flags of Our Fathers).
With the above as a good starting point I ask the question: What is The most famous photograph ever. I hope that we can get something factual but I suppose that “fame” is more than a bit subgective.
I have heard the National Geographic cover in question referred to in recent weeks as the “most recognizable photograph” but probably more Americans have seen the Iwo Jima staged flag raising image. I’ll admit, the photograph of that young girl is one of the most striking and unforgettable images I have ever seen. You should also throw in (for Americans, at least) that shot of the military man kissing the nurse in the middle of the street.
And don’t forget the most requested photograph in the National Archives is… yep, Nixon and Elvis in the Oval Office! Usually subtitled- The President and the King.
So, for “most famous” the NG cover gets my vote, as it has been seen worldwide rather than just regionally.
I don’t think that the photograph of the Afghan girl is in the running. While a lot of people (like me) recognized it when they saw it revived recently, if you asked people to name famous photographs they remember, I doubt it would have been mentioned very often.
OTOH, Eisenstaedt’s VJ-day kiss photo would probably have been on the list of everyone over a certain age, as would the Iwo Jima photo. I’d also add the photo of the Vietnamese girl running from napalm, and the student standing in front of the tank in Tienanmen Square.
I’m especially curious to see the opinions of those outside the U.S. A couple of candidates:
The “Madonna of the Depression,” Dorothea Lange’s portrait of a migrant mother and daughter.
Cliched as it’s become (is any college dorm without one?), Robert Doisneau’s Kiss by the Hotel de Ville, 1950, too.
Spot photo of a man weeping as the Wehrmacht occupies Paris.
Viet Cong execution, from the Pulitzer website. It and the Napalmed girl (who went on to become a well-known dissident against the Communist regime) helped mobilize world opinion against the United States.
Tom Crouch’s The Bishop’s Boys, a biography of the Wright brothers, says the picture of their first flight at Kitty Hawk is the world’s most-reproduced photo.
I second this. I think more people in the world have seen these than those others, which, I should think, would not be widely reproduced in, say, Japan (Iwo Jima, V-J kiss) or China (Tiananmen).
All but the Kent State photo has already been mentioned. For the most famous, I’d have to also vote for Iwo Jima.
Upon reflection however, these are all American History related, so from a more worldwide perspective, perhaps one of the moon landing photos would be more famous.
This seems like a poll - I mean, I guess there’s a definitive answer, if ‘most famous’ means ‘recognized by more living people,’ but the true answer may be unattainable.
I don’t think this quite fits, but long ago I learned that da Vinci’s Mona Lisa was the most recognizable image in the world. (Of course, it is probably now surpassed by the Nike swoosh.)
Since the image likely only gained its worldwide popularity with the advances in photoreproduction, I thought I’d mention it.
(yes, it came from a newsreel, so there it’s not technically a single photo, but the still of the zeppelin just catching fire has been used many times)
