What's the most photographed thing ever?

What's the most photographed thing ever? FEB 14 2005

What's the most photographed thing ever?.

There are 24 reader comments

tien20 14 2005 9:20PM

i'm just going to say the gates because i'm suffering from gates overload. and at this rate, i will be #1.

zac51 14 2005 9:51PM

Fingers (usually at the frame edge).
Oh, you mean the most photographed single thing?!

Donnie Millar59 15 2005 2:59AM

It has got to be pets. Oh the humanity!

Bobby Dragulescu00 15 2005 3:00AM

This question is deceivingly complicated. In order to come up with a reasonable answer, I am going to assume a few things to get a feel for the essence of the question (as I see it fit).

I am assuming that we are talking about a quantitative object, so things like sky, the ocean, and sand are out. I am going to assume that we are talking about a single thing, so camera lens glass, fingers, and boobs are out because they are different instances of the same thing. I'm also going to assume, quite liberally, that it conforms to our mental expectation of a "thing" (at least mine). So I'm basically thinking about singular, man-made objects that are not ridiculously large or small. Again, it's totally subjective, but I feel that those terms kind of get to the essence of the question.

So that said... here are some suggestions:
- The Mona Lisa.
- Any given photo backboard at the Staten Island immigration center.
-

10 minutes later... that's really all I can come up with.

eoisa00 15 2005 5:00AM

I'd have to go with the Eiffel tower.
Or, if we're talking about particularly silly instances of pictures, i'd say people pretending to hold the leaning tower of Pisa.

Sunny05 15 2005 6:05AM

Always: Light.

General subject: Sky

Single object: Eiffel Tower

yp24 15 2005 8:24AM

a strand of hair? (in terms of # count through portraits?)

Matt B58 15 2005 9:58AM

Well, if we consider "The Gates" to be an event, we'd have to compare it to events like the Olympics (which lasts 17 days, is attended by hundreds of thousands of tourists, all of whom bring cameras) or the Muslim hajj (not so many cameras). I don't know if The Gates can be compared to the Mona Lisa (or the Eiffel Tower or the Great Wall of China) since it's been around since the invention of photography. So, I say The Gates is certainly the most photographed event in 2005, but probably not photographed as much as the 2004 Olympics.
I wish that the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago had been the most photographed event ever, but alas, they limited photography to just a single "official" photographer and his work was horribly incomplete.

emily08 15 200511:08AM

I think it's probably Jennifer Aniston.

Tia13 15 200511:13AM

Pet cats.

Kirk36 15 200511:36AM

I think I heard somewhere that it was the Mona Lisa.

John38 15 200511:38AM

I don't know what the "most photographed thing ever" is, but it's definitely not The Gates — it's only going to be up for 16 days. Compare that with how many people have, over the decades, taken pictures of the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Twin Towers, any monument/memorial in Washington DC, the Hollywood sign, the Golden Gate Bridge, or the Gateway Arch.

And that's just in the US.

Throw in the CN Tower, Eiffel Tower, Big Ben, any Roman-era structure in Rome, the Great Wall of China, the Taj Mahal, etc etc etc, and any one of those things has been photographed waaaaay more than The Gates ever will be.

mark04 15 2005 5:04PM

Jarvis.

Arthur Davidson Ficke12 15 2005 5:12PM

Pissed-off cats.

Stephen18 15 2005 7:18PM

ME!

Pete16 16 200512:16PM

With all of New York's bloggers and camera geeks and such, plus tourists, The Gates will probably be photographed at the highest frequency in its 16 days of existence.

This thread is closed to new comments. Thanks to everyone who responded.