[Leica] Restoring Rosenthal's Reputation

[dmorton@journalist.co.uk (David Morton)]

Paul Schiemer wrote:

> Or, as I remember, the staged photo of the flag raising on Iwo Jima (to 
> end
> up on the cover of Life, to become the model after which a famous 
> sculpture
> at Arlington is based. Didn't that win a Pulitzer too??

Here we go again.

I suggest you read the following section from Harold Evans' book 'Pictures 
On A Page' which deals with the myth that this photograph was staged.

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"The Americans raised the flag twice on Mount Suribachi on the
morning of February 23, 1945. It was the fifth day of the invasion of
the tiny island of Iwo Jima, five miles long and two miles wide, a
crucial staging post in the battle of the Pacific. In 31 days 6,821
Americans died there, including three of the six men photographed
raising the flag the second time (148A). This photograph taken by Joe
Rosenthal of the Associated Press will live for ever. On this spread
there are the other photographs Rosenthal took (145B and 146B) and
the picture of the first time the flag was raised (146A), and they
serve only to emphasise the uniqueness of Rosenthal's 400th of a
second at 12.15pm on Suribachi. Rosenthal's epic picture has been
described as a phoney. It has been said it was posed. Those are lies,
based on a misunderstanding and the usual envy of merit. No genius
could have posed the picture if he had spent a year in the studio
with lights and a wind machine. Rosenthal puts it more modestly: 'Had
I posed the shot, I would, of course, have ruined it. I'd have picked
fewer men, for the six are so crowded in the picture that only the
hands are visible of Sergeant Michael Strank of Gonemaugh,
Pennsylvania - who was subsequently killed. I would also have made
them turn their heads so that they could be identified for AP members
throughout the country'. Rosenthal landed on Iwo Jima under gunfire
at noon on February 19, three hours after the invasion had begun. In
11 days he took 65 pictures carrying a Speed Graphic and a
Rolleiflex, and equipment weighing 25 lbs. Each day he would work his
way back to the beach from photographing fighting so that his film
could be flown off: one day the trip took 19 hours.

On D-day plus four, at 9.40 am, two patrols fought to the top of
Suribachi, an entrenched Japanese observation post, with a 40-man
detachment from the 28th Regiment, 5th Marine Division, which had a
flag from an attack transport, USS Missoula. Rosenthal started
climbing with Bill Hipple (Newsweek) and two Marine combat
photographers, Private Bob Campbell and Sergeant Bill Geneaust. they
skirted the minefields and took cover as Marines from time to time
threw grenades. About half way up they met four Marines coming down.
Staff Sergeant Louis Lowery (Leatherneck Magazine) said the men from
the 28th Regiment had raised a flag at the summit and he had
photographed it (146A). Rosenthal's group decided to push on, and
around noon reached the top. The Missoula flag was small, only 54
inches by 28 inches - and it was coming down. The Marines had now
brought up a large flag (8ft by 4ft 8 ins) so that it would be
visible northward on the island and by ships offshore. Rosenthal
says: 'I thought of taking a shot of the two flags, one coming down
and the other going up, but although this turned out to be a picture
Bob Campbell got I couldn't line it up. Then I decided to get just
the one flag going up and I backed off to about 35 ft. Here the
ground sloped down towards the centre of the volcanic crater and I
found scrub was in my way. I shoved some stones and Japanese sandbags
on top to try and raise myself about two feet (Rosenthal is only 5ft
5ins). I decided on a lens setting between f8 and f11 and set the
speed at 1/400.'

Just as the men, five Marines and a naval medicine corpsman, were
preparing to raise the flag a Lieutenant walked between them and
Rosenthal. Then Geneaust crossed in front of him with his movie
camera and took a position about two feet to his right. 'Geneaust
called: "I'm not in your way, am I, Joe?" "No," I shouted "and there
it goes." Out of the corner of my eye as I had turned toward Geneaust
I had seen the men start the flag up. I swung my camera and shot the
scene.'

Rosenthal was not sure he had a picture. 'When you take a picture
like that you don't come away saying you got a great shot. You don't
know, and within the next few minutes I made another shot of men
putting guy ropes on the pipe (146B) and still another of a group
that I got together to cheer under the flag' (145B).

It was this which was to cause confusion later. Rosenthal's film went
off and it was nine days later before he got back to Guam press
headquarters. 'Congratulations on the flag raising on Iwo', said a
correspondent, 'Did you pose it?' Rosenthal replied: 'Sure', thinking
of the third, posed, picture which he knew he had secured safely. (He
had not even identified the men in the first picture.) It was only
later that day that he saw his masterpiece for the first time. 'Gee',
I said, 'that's good all right, but I didn't pose that one. I wish I
could take credit for posing it, but I can't.'"

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From 'Pictures On A Page' by Harold Evans' - reproduced without permission 
but within the 'fair use' provisions of the Berne Copyright Convention.

David Morton
dmorton@journalist.co.uk