Name: Looking for an Icon
Genre: Documentary
Released: 2007
Duration: 55 s

Brief Synopsis

Cast & Crew

Film Details

MPAA Rating

Genre

Documentary

Release Date

2007

Distribution Company

First Run Features

Technical Specs

Duration

55m

Synopsis

Every year for the last fifty years, a professional jury of the World Press Photo Foundation has selected one photograph as winner of the "World Press Photo of the Year" competition. Some of these images have had such an impact on society that they have become symbols of their time--true historical icons. Examined is the process by which photos become icons, revealing that once a photo is published, social forces are at work beyond the photographer's control. Four World Press Photo winners are the focus, including Eddie Adams's 1968 photo of the public execution of a Viet Cong prisoner, an anonymous photographer's last image of Salvador Allende during the 1973 coup, Charlie Cole's 1989 photo of a lone student confronting tanks in Tienanmen Square, and David Turnley's 1991 photo of a grieving soldier during the first Gulf War.