What Is The Most Reproduced Image?

It's an interesting one that.

I was chatting about this very thing to a mate over a barbecued sausage over the weekend. There's an argument which says that the most reproduced image is one taken of the Earth by the astronauts onboard Apollo 17.

But I can understand that it had an massive impact in the way we saw the planet, and I imagine that there aren't all that many other options of the Earth from this distance to choose from, and not to be underestimated – it was, as still is, readily available for reproduction. But what I found interesting is that it's not the kind of image which springs to mind as being super common. 

The ones that jumped to the fore tended to be the iconic ones like the Raising the flag on Iwo Jima

or Phan Thị Kim Phúc

or a windy Marilyn Monroe

But these are no-doubt in the shadow of the portrait of Che Guevara

and a little black mouse.

But I'm going to challenge the Apollo 17 image of the Earth with the Queen. Of the different media that carry her mug – stamps, coins, banknotes, and err mugs, I think that the coins might be more heavily reproduced than the others as her portrait turns up on the face of all Commonwealth coins, whereas this isn't the case with stamps and banknotes. Of her four coinage portraits I reckon her most recent one by Ian Rank-Broadley used from 1998 might be the most common.

But I'm prepared to be challenged on this...

Comments

[Ross]

What counts as a reproduction? If one reproduces an image by loading a webpage, I'd challenge the Queen with the Google logo. I believe Google queries come on the order of a few billion per month; even when you remove holiday logo days, that's a LOT of reproductions.

I can't think of anything physical to beat the Queen's portrait, though.

[Sam]

You're coin bloody mad!

Ross I don't want to piss on your chips matey but I think I'm going to.

The google logo doesn't get reproduced when the page loads up it's a single file that sits on a server and is requested by the browser.

Although it appears billions of times each month on peoples monitors while they search for the elusive Britney spears sex tape and if you're Matt, coins of the world dating from 1872-1878, it's technically not a reproduction...

[Dave Potter]

If we're counting images which change, such as the google logo, or indeed the queen's image, then surely Christ would be the most reproduced image, he's been going over 2000 years...

[John Dodds]

Dollar bill or some chinese currency will have been more reproduced than that perhaps?

[Nick Asbury]

Maybe it's the bloke in this advert:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/aug/10/longest-running-newspaper-ad

[Matt Dent]

That's brilliant Nick!

Ross, I guess it all comes down to what's considered an 'image' and what's a 'reproduction'. Either way I like the Google thinking.

[Caroline]

It depends what you mean by 'image' I should think that the sign of the cross,(since you are not confining this discussion merely to 2D representations)could challenge your claim?

[Tom Hostler]

I'm inclined to agree with you. Add to that the famous Machin portrait used on British and commonwealth stamps for 42 years, and you're looking at billions and billions of reproductions surely?

[Max Gadney]

I reckon it is the Christian Cross, or a stick figure man

[Nikon Driver]

I'm pretty sure I read a few years back that the Mona Lisa was the most reproduced image in the world.

[Justin]

Boobs? Like Christ, represented a variety of ways, and likely popular a lot farther back than 2000 (alleged) years.

[Nick Pepper]

I think it's Arnold Machin's portrait of the Queen - http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/visual_arts/article4670207.ece

[oksupra]

"I think that the coins might be more heavily reproduced than the others as her portrait turns up on the face of all Commonwealth coins, whereas this isn't the case with stamps and banknotes."

[Lawrence Halter]

Well, Google seems to be a great contender on this category, but the same could be said for the Apple logo. Anyway, I think the most reproduced photo, when it comes to publications, is still the Apollo 17 photo.

[Suzanne Becker]

If where talking about an actual photo of painting/drawing then without a doubt it's CHE. The iconic image "Guerrillero Heroico" of the revolutionary Che is the most copied reproduced photo/image in history. Over the past decades during hard times in countries worldwide the image has become a sign of revolution, and in pop culture the image became immensely popular. It has no copyright and is not technically owned by anyone. That image is none in all walks of life.

[Ben Brooks]

I thought it was the Machin portrait that was more reproduced as it still features on British stamps to this day?