For my final blog post for the class I wanted to bring attention to the way Zelizer described the photos we have all seen from September 11th and the concentration camps during the Holocaust as iconic. These photos have been in circulation for such a long time and have been seen by millions of people, each showing the tragedy of the times. Being able to recognize these photos at a glance without hesitation we are able to pinpoint when it is from and where it happened. This is exactly what makes a photo iconic but I also got to thinking about what makes other things iconic, is it: the subject? event? just repetition? artist behind the scenes? I came to the conclusion that it HAS to be a combination of all of these things because they all work hand in hand.

Then I thought about other images that are iconic in our society, for example, Marilyn Monroe from The Seven Year Itch, the Beatles walking across Abbey Road, Playboy bunny logo, and Andy Warhol's Campbell's soup can print, the Chanel logo, to name a few. Each image has gained it's reputation because of who's in the photo, what th

e image represents, a notable time period, the story behind it, or even just who created the image. The photos, people, or images society deems 'iconic' have done so over a period of time. Icons don't pop up overnight, it takes many eyes and minds to categorize something this way.

On a different level there are things certain individuals deem iconic, that society as a whole might not. This takes us back to the different ways people use photography and images to remember and cope. But still the iconic factor of something comes from the repetition, subject, etc. not matter the personal opinion behind it.