What Makes an Iconic Image an Icon?

“A good photograph, is knowing where to stand.” Ansel Adams.

For an image to be iconic, it has to mean something. It has to say something. I was looking for quotes and there are literally hundreds, some cute, semi-meaningful, or totally cliché, but the second I saw this quote by Ansel Adams, it all came together. In every photography class I’ve ever taken, including this one, we talk about time, vantage points, angles, etc. As a photographer, in order to get the perfect shot, the “money shot,” everything in the image has to come together. The photographer needs to be standing in the precise position for all the right elements to create the perfect image. That, to me, is how icon images are made.

Iconic images are those few, sometimes only one, shots from an entire roll of film or digital photo session, where everything in the image is exactly where is needs to be. The image itself portrays when the photographer was able to capture the “perfect” moment. And these images are of scenes and events that viewers can’t something thinking about because different elements of the image resonate with them in one way or another.

I found these two images by Google searching iconic images. I had no idea what I was going to pick and I didn’t want to use the ones we had seen or talk about in class. The second I saw them, I was filled with varying emotions. With the Beatles’ album cover, I was reminded of how many recreations of the Abbey Road cover I’ve seen. I had completely forgotten about it and then, as if no time had passed, I was a kid again listening to the Beatles with my brother; and then fast-forwarded to studying for a music exam in my undergrad just a couple years ago on the Sgt. Pepper album. In a way, that’s what I mean about an iconic image being about to resonate with the viewers.

The Beatles Abbey Road

Iconic images are icon because they evoke emotion and they make you feel something, whether it’s a good feeling or a positive feel. No matter how much time has passed since the image was taken or what age the viewer is, these images above most others make you feel. While looking for a better image resolution of the Abbey Road image, I found that there were other photos that were probably taken during the same shoot for the one that is so well known. We can only guess that these images weren’t chosen for the album cover because they weren’t the right image.

Looking at them, I couldn’t have imaged any of them replacing the one. There’s an aerial shot, one with them walking in the opposite direction, one of them just walking off the curb with people in the background, another where they’re crossing the street but they’re not in sync, and a couple others. Seeing the images strongly reaffirms that in order to have the best iconic image, or potential iconic image, the photograph has to be in the right position and the moment has to be perfect.

The second image, the one of Muhammad Ali has more to do with the photographer being in the right place at the right time. The event itself is the fight between Muhammad Ali and Sonny Liston where Muhammad knocked Sonny down in the first round within the first minute of the fight. You can make out some of the shock on the audiences’ faces but in that moment some people probably hadn’t even had time to fully processes it.

Muhammad Ali vs. Sonny Liston. May 1965

This fight happened in 1965 but from the image alone, we the viewers can let our imaginations run and transport ourselves there. It’s the first round, the boxers had just touched gloves, the ref stands back, the bell is rung, and within that very first minute, Muhammad Ali lands a punch on Sonny Liston and completely knocks him off his fight; then stands over him in this fierce pose just daring him to move. This image is iconic because it’s powerful and it holds meaning. There’s a story behind the event, one that the viewer can image, relate too. We look at this image and say “wow, I want to fly like a butterfly and sting like a bee. I want to be like Muhammad Ali.” 

In his article, Almond quotes John Loengard as having said, “Another characteristic of iconic images is that they capture an exact moment and can’t possibly be repeated.”  This is a very key factor to understanding iconic images. Once a photo is taken, the moment is gone and no matter how hard one tries, you can’t get it back. People often try to recreate famous images. The one of Marilyn Monroe with her dress blowing in The Seven Year Itch (1955) was first to come to mind. Many have tried to replicate that image, but no matter how hard they try, even if they used the same props from the original film, it was the same time of day, and weather, that moment was once in a life time and any attempts will never be exactly the same. 

I’ve used two different images of Marilyn Monroe to show that even she couldn’t have recreated that moment in the film, so how could Lindsey Lohan, or someone else? Each one of the images and takes in the movie were different. Even if she when she standing in the same position, with the same dress, and making the same gestures the images would be different because time does not stop or repeat; we don’t get do overs. 

Marilyn Monroe in The Seven Year Itch movie still. 

Lindsey Lohan replica of a similar Marilyn Monroe.

That is what makes an iconic image unique. There is no other like it. You can take a picture from different angles, the before and after, etc. but you will never get that one specific moment back where everything fell into place. Jennifer Green-Lewis also talks a lot about this theme, time, in her article “Already the Past: The Backward Glance of Victorian Photography.” She talks about how photography in its truest form is about a longing to preserve moments in time that have meaning to the either the people in the image or the photographer creating it. Although Green-Lewis’s article has more to do with photographs from a specific era, I felt that at its core it was about the passage of time and of capturing an image that represents a specific moment in time.

As human beings, we tend to want to encourage the importance of nostalgia and remembrance. When it comes to iconic images related to wars or tragedy, we encourage viewers to look at these images so that they don’t forget the hardships that took place. And when it comes to happy iconic images, we are encouraged to remember the good times and how all was simple and right with the world in that captured moment. In her article, Green-Lewis points out that certain images of the past that cause nostalgia in a viewer does not always give a true account of all that was going on when the image was taken.

This brings about the topic of cropping, propaganda and agenda, and the truth behind an image. As viewers of a specific image, even if the subjects themselves are able to give an account, we will never know what was truly going on because we were not there. With images, we are getting a limited view of what is going on in the outer perspective of the image. By that I mean, we only see these moments from the photographer’s perspective. Once the image is out of the photographer’s hand, it can be used to cultivate any meaning that the viewer gleams for themselves. This happens with iconic images all the time. The question then becomes, at what point does the image stop being about what’s taking place in the frame, and starts being about how the viewer perceives it?

Sandweiss talks about this in her article, "Image and Artifact: The Photograph as Evidence in the Digital Age." Even though she is talking about an archivist’s interpretation of a photograph vs. the photographer’s intent, the points she makes are still relevant when it comes to the subject of interpreting the meaning behind an iconic image and why people continue to reference them. She states that “the photographer’s intent may be fickle, unknowable, beyond the powers of the historian to ascertain.” I would argue that this true for the viewers as well. We may never know what the photographer of an iconic image was thinking at the time the image was taken. Even if the photographer gives an account of what was going through their mind, it might not be the whole truth or the truth at all.

The meaning of an iconic image is continuously transformed to fit whatever purpose a viewer, including the photographer, wants it to. For example, the image that we saw and discussed in class of the mother feeding her child in the audience. That image was used to suit the needs of whatever agenda the people who created the poster claiming she was looking up at bombs falling from the sky. Despite that though, despite the limited information that a viewer has, and what they are being led to believe when it comes to iconic images being used for propaganda, people are still going to have their own perceptions. 

The point that I'm trying to get at is that to me iconic images are iconic because they evoke emotion. Iconic images are of subjects, events, instants, that strike a cord with the viewer and makes them think and feel. An iconic image is the only visual, historical, representation that a viewer has on a specific moment in time. Once the shutter snaps that image, the moment is gone. It's the moment, the feelings, the subjects, the weather, and all other elements that are in the image that make it transcend through time. It's because those unique images make us feel something that they are iconic. Even though we have our memories, for those who were present at these events and can give an account, it's these iconic image that stands as the "true," photographic, proof that something actually took place. These events are can be distorted and the message behind the image misconstrued, but sometimes it's an honest image, of an honest moment. And people can say what ever they want about how an image makes them feel, but the truth is, it's our emotions that decide what matters, what will continue to matter, and what's completely left out of the history books. 

References:

Muhammad Ali image: <http://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2015/oct/23/the-joy-of-six-iconic-sports-photos>

The Beatles Abbey Road Image: <http://i100.independent.co.uk/image/30639-8rzr5y.jpg>

Marilyn Monroe Movie Still Image: <http://thedeclarationatcoloniahigh.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/marilyn.jpg> 

Lindsey Lohan vs. Marilyn Monroe Image: <http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.1240753!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/gallery_1200/lindsay-lohan-marilyn-monroe.jpg>

Almond, Kyle. “What Makes An Image Unforgettable?” CNN.com. 4 September 2013. Accessed 4 December 2015. < http://www.cnn.com/2013/09/01/us/the-flag-iconic-images/>

Green-Lewis, Jennifer. “Already the Past: The Backward Glance of Victorian Photography.” English Language Notes; Fall/Winter2006, Vol. 44 Issue 2. September 2006.

Salmon, Evie. “What is Iconic Imagery?” In Focus by Getty Images. Accessed 4 December 2015. <http://infocus.gettyimages.com/post/what-is-iconic-imagery#.Vmms9fkrLDd>

Sandweiss, Martha. "Image and Artifact: The Photograph as Evidence in the Digital Age." 
The Journal of American History. Jun 2007; 94, 1; ProQuest pg. 193