# The Most Memorable Photograph of All Time?



## Stanley Edwards (Apr 29, 2008)

I can guess what's going to be the most popular choice.

Nominate YOUR most memorable photograph of all time. 

And, explain why!


----------



## jonH (Apr 29, 2008)




----------



## Stanley Edwards (Apr 29, 2008)

Y, por que?


----------



## Sweaty Betty (Apr 29, 2008)




----------



## quimcunx (Apr 29, 2008)

The TV/Newspaper audience had the stark truth brought to them by viewing this starving child, attended to by a vulture only, through this photographer's lens.  Conversely, viewing the unfolding famine through his lens removed/distanced the photographer from the reality of the scene.


----------



## Thora (Apr 29, 2008)

jonH said:


>



Fake


----------



## jonH (Apr 29, 2008)

Thora said:


> Fake


----------



## Stanley Edwards (Apr 29, 2008)

Stop pissing on my thread.

It was serious 


Tossers!


----------



## jonH (Apr 29, 2008)

no, it's a good photo, it's well loved


----------



## Sweaty Betty (Apr 29, 2008)

Stanley Edwards said:


> Stop pissing on my thread.
> 
> It was serious
> 
> ...



It was Cartman waving to Stanley


----------



## Thora (Apr 29, 2008)

jonH said:


> no, it's a good photo, it's well loved



But it's a lie.


----------



## bluestreak (Apr 29, 2008)

apparently it no longer exists.  way to fuck up this thread blue.


----------



## JTG (Apr 29, 2008)

I think Stanley chose the wrong time of day to start this thread


----------



## Stanley Edwards (Apr 29, 2008)

Sweaty Betty said:


> It was Cartman waving to Stanley




It ain't a fucking photo though


----------



## quimcunx (Apr 29, 2008)

Don't know why I bother taking anything seriously.


----------



## jonH (Apr 29, 2008)

Papingo said:


> Don't know why I bother taking anything seriously.


now you're making sense


----------



## Stanley Edwards (Apr 29, 2008)

Bollocks!


Ciao people. All reasonable discussion opportunities have passed 

Hasta manana!


----------



## Sweaty Betty (Apr 29, 2008)

Stanley Edwards said:


> It ain't a fucking photo though



Screw you...Thats the last time i wave to you stanley


----------



## zenie (Apr 29, 2008)

This 







or this


----------



## zenie (Apr 29, 2008)

Papingo said:


> The TV/Newspaper audience had the stark truth brought to them by viewing this starving child, attended to by a vulture only, through this photographer's lens.  Conversely, viewing the unfolding famine through his lens removed/distanced the photographer from the reality of the scene.




It makes you wonder, that kind of photo.


----------



## jonH (Apr 29, 2008)




----------



## JTG (Apr 29, 2008)

My favourite:






cos it makes me smile and think of why I love football (ie being lairy in a way you really wouldn't be normally)

prolly loads better pics but it's what I thought of first


----------



## treefrog (Apr 29, 2008)

Thora said:


> Fake


You have got to be kidding me, I didn't have you down as a tin-foil hat type  

I'd go with this one...






For the first time, we had a tiny idea of our place in the grander scheme of things. There had never been a picture of the earth in space before, and it woke people up to the idea that we're a tiny, tiny, fragile but beautiful thing.


----------



## JTG (Apr 29, 2008)

and then we carried on buggering the place up anyway. in fact, we started doing it faster


----------



## bluestreak (Apr 29, 2008)




----------



## JTG (Apr 29, 2008)

we have a winner


----------



## 8ball (Apr 29, 2008)

bluestreak said:


>



Beer-spluttering LOL!! 

Some great pics on this thread.


----------



## boskysquelch (Apr 29, 2008)




----------



## Dillinger4 (Apr 29, 2008)

bluestreak said:


>



Longcat is lonnnnnng.


----------



## krow (Apr 29, 2008)

jonH said:


>



Studio lighting.

The Universe by Hubble
http://hubblesite.org/gallery/album/entire_collection/


----------



## JTG (Apr 29, 2008)

photoshop


----------



## Paulie Tandoori (Apr 29, 2008)

or






i reckon.


----------



## JTG (Apr 29, 2008)

is she picking her veruca or summat?


----------



## Paulie Tandoori (Apr 29, 2008)

JTG said:


> is she picking her veruca or summat?


 class


----------



## gabi (Apr 29, 2008)




----------



## Thora (Apr 29, 2008)

treefrog said:


> You have got to be kidding me, I didn't have you down as a tin-foil hat type



I'm suprised you would be so willing to believe them!


----------



## JTG (Apr 29, 2008)

she's been brainwashed


----------



## 8ball (Apr 29, 2008)

Always thought Thora had good-mental, not bad-mental. 

(((bad-mental Thora)))


----------



## Johnny Canuck3 (Apr 29, 2008)




----------



## Paulie Tandoori (Apr 29, 2008)

why?


----------



## gabi (Apr 30, 2008)

In reality, this is it






Altho Im sure theres better versions of it.


----------



## Johnny Canuck3 (Apr 30, 2008)

Paulie Tandoori said:


> why?



http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/capa_r.html


----------



## Johnny Canuck3 (Apr 30, 2008)




----------



## Paulie Tandoori (Apr 30, 2008)

Johnny Canuck2 said:


> http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/capa_r.html


someone else's opinion JC2. what is yours?


----------



## Johnny Canuck3 (Apr 30, 2008)

Paulie Tandoori said:


> someone else's opinion JC2. what is yours?



My opinion is that the photo encapsulates War.

I provided the link in case you weren't familiar with it. Background, and the like.


----------



## treefrog (Apr 30, 2008)

it's not really a personal perspective though, is it?


----------



## Paulie Tandoori (Apr 30, 2008)

Johnny Canuck2 said:


> My opinion is that the photo encapsulates War.
> 
> I provided the link in case you weren't familiar with it. Background, and the like.


War? When. I doubt whether the harsh reality of 'War' really is captured these days by that pic. Although civil disobedience or insurrection or disorder might come close.

But does 'war' and/or 'violence' and/or '???' define your most memorable photo JC2? nothing with hope or forgiveness or owt else?


----------



## Johnny Canuck3 (Apr 30, 2008)

Paulie Tandoori said:


> War? When. I doubt whether the harsh reality of 'War' really is captured these days by that pic. Although civil disobedience or insurrection or disorder might come close.
> 
> But does 'war' and/or 'violence' and/or '???' define your most memorable photo JC2? nothing with hope or forgiveness or owt else?



I think the reality of war is captured just fine in the pic. It's a random, unknown individual, not a hero or a general, losing his life in an unknown, nondescript location. Somebody's father, husband, brother. 

All that he was, is departing, at the moment the picture is taken.

The tools of war might change, but the essence is the same.

As for images of hope etc, they're fine too, but I'm selecting what I select as being most memorable. It's obviously a subjective process.


----------



## Johnny Canuck3 (Apr 30, 2008)

treefrog said:


> it's not really a personal perspective though, is it?



I don't get what you mean.


----------



## Paulie Tandoori (Apr 30, 2008)

Johnny Canuck2 said:


> I think the reality of war is captured just fine in the pic. It's a random, unknown individual, not a hero or a general, losing his life in an unknown, nondescript location. Somebody's father, husband, brother.
> 
> All that he was, is departing, at the moment the picture is taken.
> 
> ...


So 'war' is the overriding factor in making an objective judgement about what SE said was the 'most memorable photo of all time'. surely, there are other bits of human munificence that have dragged on your heart strings slightly. after all, you've posted the odd attractive snap sometimes, something to make you smile maybe?


----------



## Johnny Canuck3 (Apr 30, 2008)

Paulie Tandoori said:


> So 'war' is the overriding factor in making an objective judgement about what SE said was the 'most memorable photo of all time'. surely, there are other bits of human munificence that have dragged on your heart strings slightly. after all, you've posted the odd attractive snap sometimes, something to make you smile maybe?



Sure, there have been happy photos, etc, but I think this is one of the most memorable photos ever.


----------



## Paulie Tandoori (Apr 30, 2008)

Johnny Canuck2 said:


> Sure, there have been happy photos, etc, but I think this is one of the most memorable photos ever.


Ok JC2, why is it that an image that is famously associated with death, despair and destruction is so closely identified with 'most memorable'? Has your life been that bad?

Surely, there are other images that you remember? Are they all so sad?


----------



## Johnny Canuck3 (Apr 30, 2008)

Paulie Tandoori said:


> Ok JC2, why is it that an image that is famously associated with death, despair and destruction is so closely identified with 'most memorable'? Has your life been that bad?
> 
> Surely, there are other images that you remember? Are they all so sad?



How odd. 


What I'm doing, is thinking about the most memorable photo ever. Chances are good that a photo will be memorable if it is powerful, if it addresses timeless themes, and often, if there is something unusual, remarkable, or shocking about it that will cause it to stay in the memory.

I remember many many images, but usually pictures of smiling babies, flowers, or lambs, won't meet the criteria for 'most memorable'.

The question isn't most pleasing, or happiest, but 'most memorable'.

Also, it doesn't say, 'most memorable to you', but 'most memorable'. We're judging the photography of the world. There are personal photos that have much more meaning to me, and are more memorable than that one, but that isn't what was asked.


----------



## JTG (Apr 30, 2008)

I like this one, from the 1984/85 miners' strike


----------



## boskysquelch (Apr 30, 2008)

Johnny Canuck2 said:


> bal blah bla blah blah bla bla bla blha blaaaa blah blah blah blah blah BLAH..bla bla bla bla blah blah blH. blah.



did he _win_ then?

OR

is this the MOST memorable photograph of all time?


----------



## Thora (Apr 30, 2008)

8ball said:


> Always thought Thora had good-mental, not bad-mental.
> 
> (((bad-mental Thora)))



Sheeple


----------



## golightly (Apr 30, 2008)

This is a memorable photo, but it's fake.  It was set up.  You can debate the whether the moon landings were fake as much as you like but the photo of Aldrin taken by Armstrong is still memorable whether it was taken on the moon or in a studio.  Thora's comments considering the topic of the thread thread title are irrelevant.


----------



## boskysquelch (Apr 30, 2008)

golightly said:


> Thora's comments considering the topic of the thread thread title are irrelevant.



so are yours... I've won photo_n00b.


----------



## _pH_ (Apr 30, 2008)

That Kevin Carter one.....or a photo of an East German guard leaping over the barbed wire in Berlin....can't remember his name though


----------



## boskysquelch (Apr 30, 2008)

_pH_ said:


> ....can't remember his name though



FAIL then


----------



## _pH_ (Apr 30, 2008)

boskysquelch said:


> FAIL then



Yep, made of it, me


----------



## boskysquelch (Apr 30, 2008)

_pH_ said:


> Yep, made of it, me



not as bad as this...


----------



## _pH_ (Apr 30, 2008)

boskysquelch said:


> not as bad as this...



That's quite scary in a 1984 way


----------



## Stanley Edwards (Apr 30, 2008)

I'm going for a nice Ansell Adams landscape:






Most memorable to me because it was the subject of an 'A' level essay or, summat?


I'm surprised no-one has mentioned Henri Cartier Bresson yet. Very prolific and most of his work very quickly forgotten, but this shot usually comes up in these sort of lists:






golightly's Flag over the Reichstag nomination is a good example of a powerful propaganda image, but Capa's shot  (as posted by JC2) is also said to have been staged.

Interesting that Four of the photographs posted so far are actually considered by most experts to be staged, or set-up and reported as actual events.


----------



## Stanley Edwards (Apr 30, 2008)

This would have been in a top 10 list 20 years ago. Seems all but forgotten now.


----------



## Barking_Mad (May 1, 2008)




----------



## hiccup (May 1, 2008)

I'm surprised no-one has mentioned goatse yet. Not an image that fades from the memory easily.


----------



## lighterthief (May 1, 2008)

Papingo said:


> The TV/Newspaper audience had the stark truth brought to them by viewing this starving child, attended to by a vulture only, through this photographer's lens.  Conversely, viewing the unfolding famine through his lens removed/distanced the photographer from the reality of the scene.


That's a deeply unsettling picture.


----------



## JTG (May 1, 2008)

hiccup said:


> I'm surprised no-one has mentioned goatse yet. Not an image that fades from the memory easily.



bluestreak did


----------



## hiccup (May 1, 2008)

JTG said:


> bluestreak did



Bless his cotton socks


----------



## stowpirate (May 1, 2008)




----------



## Sugarmouse (May 1, 2008)

lighterthief said:


> That's a deeply unsettling picture.


[
That pics won a few prizes.... I am struck by the photographer though- I am not sure I could calmly focus a camera at that scene. I just remember thinking the vulture is awaiting the child to die at least,before he tears it apart for dinner.

That photo would be one of my all time faves though. But with this thread I was confused as to whether Stanley meant _personal _photos, or just images in general.


----------



## gabi (May 1, 2008)

Sugarmouse said:


> [
> That pics won a few prizes.... I am struck by the photographer though- I am not sure I could calmly focus a camera at that scene. I just remember thinking the vulture is awaiting the child to die at least,before he tears it apart for dinner.
> 
> That photo would be one of my all time faves though. But with this thread I was confused as to whether Stanley meant _personal _photos, or just images in general.



Wasn't that pic found to be a setup?


----------



## zenie (May 1, 2008)

Sugarmouse said:


> That photo would be one of my all time faves though. But with this thread I was confused as to whether Stanley meant _personal _photos, or just images in general.


 

The clue is in tht title he says 'the' not 'your'


----------



## Firky (May 1, 2008)

fucking hell, three pages and no one has posted it, one of the most widly duplicated, manipulated and iconic photographs. It embraces capitalism as much as the subject stood against it...


----------



## gabi (May 1, 2008)

firky said:


> fucking hell, three pages and no one has posted it, one of the most widly duplicated, manipulated and iconic photographs. It embraces capitalism as much as the subject stood against it...


----------



## Sugarmouse (May 1, 2008)

zenie said:


> The clue is in tht title he says 'the' not 'your'



Right ok.No, I dont _beleive _it is a setup?But I guess it could be. I thinkthe tog commited suicide shortly afterward..


----------



## Firky (May 1, 2008)

gabi said:


>



It's even on currency, it is that famous. In fact, when it was used by an advertising agency to promote vodka the photographer (who is still alive) took it to court and won, because not only did the subject not drink (although he was often drunk in a book he wrote) but also because it was offensive to anti-capitalism.


----------



## JTG (May 1, 2008)

che guevara


----------



## Firky (May 1, 2008)

Bingo.

Wiki

 The V&A Museum also proclaims it "the most reproduced image in the history of photography."[5] Jonathan Green director of the UCR Museum of Photography has postulated that "Korda’s image has worked its way into languages around the world. It has become an alpha-numeric symbol, a hieroglyph, an instant symbol. It mysteriously reappears whenever there’s a conflict. There isn’t anything else in history that serves in this way."[6]


----------



## dada (May 1, 2008)

gabi said:


> In reality, this is it



second that.


----------



## stowpirate (May 1, 2008)

firky said:


> There isn’t anything else in history that serves in this way."[6]



Except this 






Che also had good taste in cameras, he used a Leica.

http://www.c-weng.com/cheguevara01.jpg


----------



## Pavlik (May 2, 2008)

Johnny Canuck2 said:


>



I've always been impressed with this photographer for clicking at that exact moment.


----------



## boskysquelch (May 2, 2008)

Pavlik said:


> I've always been impressed with this photographer for clicking at that exact moment.



then go and learn why you have no need to be.

wanna see the picture after this?


----------



## stowpirate (May 2, 2008)

Vietnam has some iconic images. How does something like this compare to the homeless thread and the right to photograph them for gain?


----------



## Biddlybee (May 2, 2008)

zenie said:


> It makes you wonder, that kind of photo.


Didn't the photographer kill himself? 


zenie said:


> The clue is in tht title he says 'the' not 'your'


The clue is in the OP 


Stanley Edwards said:


> Nominate YOUR most memorable photograph of all time.
> 
> And, explain why!


Quite a few of these photos are on this thread in a different form 
http://www.urban75.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=245767


----------



## boskysquelch (May 2, 2008)

stowpirate said:


> Vietnam has some iconic images. How does something like this compare to the homeless thread and the right to photograph them for gain?



it was staged.

the Woman has said so... often.


----------



## Stanley Edwards (May 2, 2008)

stowpirate said:


> ... How does something like this compare to the homeless thread and the right to photograph them for gain?




Those who are bold and brave enough to choose a career in war photography deserve every penny they get for spreading the truth IMO. It's a job and we all need money. 

People who choose to snap shots of people down on their luck for personal gain aren't doing it in the belief they're going to change society for the better. I'm not really sure why they do it TBH


----------



## boskysquelch (May 2, 2008)

this however wasn't


----------



## Firky (May 2, 2008)

boskysquelch said:


> it was staged.
> 
> the Woman has said so... often.



I know, I can't even be arsed to point it out anymore.


----------



## boskysquelch (May 2, 2008)

firky said:


> I know, I can't even be arsed to point it out anymore.



the Irony of this "discussion" is that this shot







and this ALONE turned the Vietnam War around.

AND when published the post out of head part was removed for "aesthetic" purposes... 

oh

the

i_Rony.


----------



## Pavlik (May 2, 2008)

boskysquelch said:


> then go and learn why you have no need to be.



why don't you teach me master?


----------



## ajk (May 2, 2008)

boskysquelch said:


> it was staged.
> 
> the Woman has said so... often.



Linky?


----------



## boskysquelch (May 3, 2008)

actually..fkkit I know what I know


----------



## maldwyn (May 3, 2008)

I was about 7 when I first saw this photo and it disturbed me for months.


----------



## g force (May 6, 2008)

Sugarmouse said:


> Right ok.No, I dont _beleive _it is a setup?But I guess it could be. I thinkthe tog commited suicide shortly afterward..



Kevin Carter...yes he did, claimed the photo (which one the Pulizter) depressed him so much and made him feel guilty for taking the pic and walking away.

There's a good book called "The Bang Bang Club" that documents Carter, Marinovcih, Oosterbroek and Silva's photographs/stories at the time, including the Vulture pic.


----------



## cybertect (May 6, 2008)

boskysquelch said:


> it was staged.
> 
> the Woman has said so... often.



Are you sure you're not confusing her with Richard Nixon? 

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/02/28/politics/main502490.shtml

http://www.vietnamwar.com/phanthikimphuc.htm


----------



## alsoknownas (May 6, 2008)

boskysquelch said:


> it was staged.
> 
> the Woman has said so... often.


Are you suggesting that the Vietnam napalm photo is staged?  Because that isn't the case.


----------



## cybertect (May 6, 2008)

firky said:


> I know, I can't even be arsed to point it out anymore.



She's making a hell of a lot of mileage out of being a participant in a staged photo for someone who's supposedly denying it, being a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador and everything.


----------



## boskysquelch (May 6, 2008)

alsoknownas said:


> Are you suggesting that the Vietnam napalm photo is staged?  Because that isn't the case.



she and the other children were given first aid...THEN the photograph was taken...THEN she was taken to hozzy.

That is what i heard HER say. Not what I read. But what I have HEARD her *SAY*.

Maybe a "construct " that arose from the situation witnessed...is more accurate than "staged"?

And as cybertect _said_...she has used the picture for "mileage"...positively...IIRC she has reasoned often that if that memorable picture has helped other children to avoid the horrors she has had to endure in her existance...then she is happy for the event to be seen in the light of how it is generally perceived_read.


----------



## cybertect (May 6, 2008)

boskysquelch said:


> she and the other children were given first aid...THEN the photograph was taken...THEN she was taken to hozzy.



OK. I've turned up a few accounts she's made of that day, and she doesn't say that's what happened in any of them

For example: http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2001/s290740.htm



> KIM PHUC: When I was running out of the fire, I guessed that the photographer he was just somewhere right there but I didn't see him, of course.
> 
> I just saw my brothers and some soldier running with me.
> 
> ...



Which squares with other accounts



> Nick Ut recalled in a 1999 interview: "When we (the reporters) moved closer to the village we saw the first people running. I thought 'Oh my God' when I suddenly saw a woman with her left leg badly burned by napalm. Then came a woman carrying a baby, who died, then another woman carrying a small child with it's skin coming off. When I took a picture of them I heard a child screaming and saw that young girl who had pulled off all her burning clothes. She yelled to her brother on her left. Just before the napalm was dropped soldiers (of the South Vietnamese Army) had yelled to the children to run but there wasn't enough time."
> 
> Nick Ut used two cameras to photograph the scenes in front of him - his Leica and a Nikon with a long lens.
> 
> ...



Interviews with Kim Phuc and the journalists involved: http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=8680472


----------



## boskysquelch (May 6, 2008)

actually...nah you are _almost_ right. better? 


....but I heard her verbalize different 


RIGHT

look at this YouTube link   ......the ITN source...the photographer SENDS the boy in the white shirt BACK to Kim ... I think he is the photographer in the right of shot that is reloding his camera...but the kids are definately running as they are because of the direction of that photographer..therefore a construct create becasue of direction. ....take note of the barb wire in the shots, the road and the OFFICIAL line that the journos were at.


note the girl camera left...and int the photo she is camera right.

If the photographer in the still had not sent the boy back the pickee would prolly not have happened.

For anyone whose interested I really AM  NOT trying to devalue the shot...what I am trying to do is to demonstrate that it is the _job_ that creates pickees...by an' large...not the event.


----------



## alsoknownas (May 6, 2008)

boskysquelch said:


> RIGHT
> 
> look at this YouTube link   ......the ITN source...the photographer SENDS the boy in the white shirt BACK to Kim ... I think he is the photographer in the right of shot that is reloding his camera...but the kids are definately running as they are because of the direction of that photographer..therefore a construct create becasue of direction. ....take note of the barb wire in the shots, the road and the OFFICIAL line that the journos were at.



Very hard to tell, I've had quite a few looks (warning it's quite horrific).
What it does show is that all the elements are in place as they run down the road (boy and girl in the right positions, other children too, and the soldiers), and that it was possible to take the famous shot.  I would have said that it provides more evidence that the shot wasn't staged, rather than the other way round (in fact I was about to post the same link to support my view!).

Having said all that - when you said it was staged, I thought you meant completely staged, like 'they staged the moon-landing'-kind-of-staged.  If all you meant was that the already-napalmed-girl was told to run down a different bit of road then, well.... maybe.


----------



## boskysquelch (May 6, 2008)

alsoknownas said:


> Having said all that - when you said it was staged, I thought you meant completely staged, like 'they staged the moon-landing'-kind-of-staged.  If all you meant was that the already-napalmed-girl was told to run down a different bit of road then, well.... maybe.



yup...sorry dood I have reedited...see the second link ...note the girl in trousers.


----------



## alsoknownas (May 6, 2008)

boskysquelch said:


> ...note the girl in trousers.



Yeah, it's possible.  She's in the wrong place.  The photographer does seem to be slowing them down.  Also, if you look at the freeze frame at the end of the sequence, she looks confused, as if trying to work out what she's supposed to do.  Also both her and the boy have more distressed expressions in the photo.  I'm starting to come round to the idea that they were told to walk back and then run towards him again.

If so, does that 'ruin' the picture?

Well, bit of a cold-hearted thing to do to a (clearly) traumatised and severly injured child.  But (if it's possible to insert a but after that last sentence) the essential truth of the moment has not been falsified.  That is the very moment that those kids fled those bombs.  I now see them as also (possibly) being harrased by some Western journalists!


----------



## alsoknownas (May 6, 2008)

Oh, one more thing - horrible about the other child in that footage, the one being carried - either already dead, or soon to be dead, I would have to assume.  Tragic.


----------



## cesare (May 6, 2008)

Hard to choose one in particular, But I find this one memorable:






Eyes Of An Afghan Refugee, Steve McCurry.

Not least because he found Sharbat Gula again 17 years later in 2002.


----------



## stowpirate (May 7, 2008)

http://picasaweb.google.com/hoangtube.bk/FidelChe/photo#5129735786010720242

"Whats that snapped the editor pointing to the soldier holding kovalievs legs. Didn't you spot the watch on each wrist? He is a looter. There are no Soviet Looters"

The two flag holders were Jewish which to Stalin was politically incorrect and had the names changed to Milton Kantaria, Georgian like Stalin and M ikhail Iegorev, Russian. 

This is a famous photo taken in Berlin 1945 by Yevgeny Khaldei. The official photo had one watch removed.


----------



## Rainingstairs (May 20, 2008)

Burning in Protest over Vietnam leader Diem's abuse of Buddhist Monks: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_Monk


----------

