What makes a picture iconic

Celso Filho
Nov 5 · 5 min read

When a terrorist bombing killed 168 people in Oklahoma City, in 1995, one picture became the face of that tragedy — firefighter Chris Fields holding one-year-old girl Baylee Almon, who died following the attack. The photograph taken by Charles H. Porter not only won a Pulitzer Prize, but was widely published throughout the US, achieving iconic status. But what makes a photo iconic?

Throughout history photos have moved the world. The girl fleeing from a napalm attack during the Vietnam war, American soldiers raising the US flag in Iwo Jima, and more recently, the dead body of a Syrian toddler on a beach in Turkey.

In 2015, 20 years after the Oklahoma City bombing, Baylee’s mother, Aren Almon-Kok, spoke to NBC broadcast about her life since the bombing and her feelings about the photo of her daughter.

“When I look at it [the photo],” Almon-Kok said, “I don’t see Baylee. I see a symbol.”

The United States Marine Corps War Memorial (Iwo Jima Memorial), inspired by Rosenthal's iconic photograph.
The United States Marine Corps War Memorial (Iwo Jima Memorial), inspired by Rosenthal's iconic photograph.
The United States Marine Corps War Memorial, in Arlington County, Virginia, was inspired by Joe Rosenthal's iconic picture (Photo by Laurasaman on Unsplash)

The power of symbolism

“Maybe the personal story got the initial angle, or initial reaction,” said Sanne van der Loeff, World Press Photo Foundation exhibitions manager and curator. “But why this carries over time is not just because of that personal story, but also because it represents something bigger.”

Van Der Loeff explained why World Press Photo awarded a picture, taken by AFP photographer Ronald Schemidt in 2018, of a demonstrator running and on fire: it related not only to the Venezuelan political crisis, but to a broader context.

“For the jury,” van Der Loeff said, “that was one of the things that gave the image this iconic potential, because he [the protester] represents any kind of conflict or civil protest that we had in 2018.”

According to Robert Hariman, a Northwestern University professor and co-author of the book No caption needed: Iconic photographs, public culture, and liberal democracy, these pictures are also emotionally powerful and appropriated through different genres over time, crystalizing themselves as part of collective memory. It’s not uncommon to see these visual icons illustrated on stamps, postcards, or contextualized in cartoons. They have the ability to remain relevant through decades and generations.

Their powerful aesthetics influence public life. These pictures have the power to alter political speech or constrain governments. Above all, they are part of public debate. Research conducted by Paul Slovic, Daniel Västfjäll, Arvid Erlandsson, and Robin Gregory focused on Aylan Kurdi, a three-year-old Syrian boy whose image made global headlines in 2015 after he drowned in the Mediterranean Sea.

They found that after the photograph was published, the number of donations for NGOs and Google searches about the conflict in Syria increased. This was emotionally charged, and had a much greater effect than other news published regarding the death toll of Syrian infants.

Capturing the right moment

So what does it take for a picture to become iconic? There is no one formula, even though media, governments and photographers consistently try to produce one.

“It’s not something that you can strategically intend to do and succeed,” Hariman explained.

The frame of reference plays an important role. In a quick look through the 100 most influential images by Time magazine, we find that many of the selected photos portray conflicts or human suffering. Hariman explains that this is expected because of what photojournalism normally deals with.

“This is about politics and history,” he said. “And that’s typically about violence.”

Sanne van der Loef agreed that the context in which a photo is taken, alongside other factors, makes it difficult to find a distinguishable formula. However, it is possible to find patterns by looking at historical images. Often, these images portray one person highlighted or focused upon: the ‘Tank Man’, at Tiananmen Square, or the ‘Napalm Girl’, in Vietnam. “It personalizes the story,” said San van Der Loeff.

It’s important to note that not all iconic photos have the greatest composition, or are the work of professional photographers. In Time magazine’s iconic photos catalogue, a number of amateur pictures made the list. These amateur photos make the cut because they are unique. One prominent example is the footage of Neda Agha-Soltan — a student shot and killed during a 2009 protest in Iran. The videographer of those images remains unknown.

American astronaut Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin walking on the moon on July 20, 1969
American astronaut Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin walking on the moon on July 20, 1969
Neil Amstrong's iconic photo of Buzz Aldrin walking on the moon (Photo by History in HD on Unsplash)

Sometimes, it’s as simple as registering the right moment.

“They are particularly strong photographs, but what is interesting is how they are picked up and recirculated,” Hariman said. “In the end, the public is deciding what is iconic.”

Visual icons are not universal

There is also a general consensus that what is iconic to some means absolutely nothing to others.

In a recent study from Utrecht University, Rutger van der Hoeven conducted surveys in 12 countries in order to find out how differently they viewed visual news icons.

The study revealed a common acceptance of certain photographs as iconic, with many influenced by their relevance to the people’s proximity, knowledge, history and culture.

For example, in the Utrecht University research, South African photographer Kevin Carter’s picture ‘Vulture and Child’ — an image of a starving Sudanese toddler stalked by a vulture, which won him a Pulitzer Prize in 1994 — was recognized in the global south more than in Europe or in the US.

“And that’s the funny thing about iconic images, because they can be placed within a town, within a country or a continent,” said Sanne van der Loef. “They are shaped by public opinion and collective memory, and this is different from one country to another. And in the end, this is what makes them so complex and famous.”

Want to test your memory of iconic photos? Try this trivia about some famous pictures: https://plbz.it/2KHm5mO


This article was originally written as an academic assignment related to my Master's thesis 'When Images Do Politics: The Role of Agents in the Study of Iconic Photographs' for the University of Amsterdam.

Celso Filho

Written by

Brazilian journalist based in the Netherlands, with special interest in Visual Arts, Human Rights, and International Politics.

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