POV: Remembered For A Single Image?

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

A comment by Paolo Evangelista on one of our Facebook 'conversations' gave me reason to pause. He expressed his view that it would be terrible to be remembered for just a single photograph...a photograph that was so popular that, in the consciousness of the general public, it eclipsed all others made by the photographer.

I agree. It is one thing to be remembered for a photograph of a non staged event that influenced the alteration of the course of history, that changed a perception, a bias or a policy, etc...and quite another to be remembered for a photograph that was popularized either because of the beauty of its subject or because it was relentlessly marketed...or both.

I would much rather being remembered for a project, for a series of photographs or for a style than for a single photograph...no matter how good it was.

But that's me.

Oh, and the above photograph is of an orang asli, a member of the  "original people" or "first people" who live in Malaysia. Will I be remembered for this photograph? I hope not.