What Makes A Photograph Legendary?

Commentators are debasing the term with unwarranted hyperbole

- Martin Middlebrook

A couple of weeks back, the Reuters photographer Jonathan Bachman took a picture of a black woman standing calmly in front of advancing police officers at a rally in Louisiana (see page 82 for more of the story). The picture was immediately described as ‘legendary’ by commentators. Now, what follows is not a critique of Mr Bachman and the portfolio he created that day, which contains many notable images. The issue is, what was so legendary about the image, how does an image become legendary, and who decides?

Things achieve a legendary status over time, as they seep into our consciousness. It is an unexplained phenomenon, born of many small things that seem to accumulate a mass. But simply telling me that something is legendary is not enough. And doing so 30 seconds after the event is certainly insufficient.