4 ms·
Data point. The most reproduced photo of the 20th century is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V-J_Day_in_Times_Square https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V-J_Day_in_Tim
by btilly 5y ago
Data point.
The most reproduced photo of the 20th century is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V-J_Day_in_Times_Square https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V-J_Day_in_Times_Square. It raises multiple issues of consent. The photographer didn't know who was being photographed. The woman didn't consent to the kiss, and didn't realized she had been photographed until many years later. Under current law, it was a sexual assault. Indeed in another frame on the same camera, she was fighting back.
But it gets better. A man who claimed to have been the kisser later sued for a share of the proceeds. (George Mendonsa dropped the suit later citing costs.)
And there we have it. One of the most iconic photos of all time has lack of consent written all over it. And yet, I'm very glad that the photographer took the picture.
- calderwoodra 5y agoI wonder if they know they've been immortalized in National Harbor, MD. https://maps.app.goo.gl/KnGhdR5gvGLtvq3v6 https://maps.app.goo.gl/KnGhdR5gvGLtvq3v6
- estaseuropano 5y agoCounterpoint: If this photo hadn't been taken or the photographer had felt shame at its content and not put it forward for print, nothing would be lost. There are thousands of photos taken the same day that could have become iconic instead. It's an artistically and emotionally good photo, but it holds no special significance outside the fame it gathered. If it hadn't become famous you wouldn't miss this photo and instead maybe some 5 year old waving to her dad coming home, or a mother hugging her son would have become famous.
- CRConrad 5y agoOr just simply some other homecoming soldier kissing his consenting girlfriend.
- shard 5y agoI'm not sure if I buy that counterfactual. Taken to its logical conclusion, you can say that about any piece of art, or anyone you meet, or any event in your life. I don't believe that these are such interchangeable items. Taking your example of an alternate photo of a 5yo waving to her dad, or a mother hugging her son, they express different things compared with the photo in question, with the original photo giving me a sense of the joy of returning to a youthful life full of promise, while the 5yo waving photo would be of the relief of a father knowing that he will be able to raise his daughter, and the last would be of a dutiful son returning.