Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1997/12/03
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Here's the text from Harold Evans' book Pictures On A Page, reproduced without permission. Normally I deplore copyright infringement like this, but cite the 'fair use' provisions of the Berne Convention, and the need to correct an oft-repeated libel. - ---------------------------------------------------------------- "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.'" - ---------------------------------------------------------------- In the last few weeks some of the postings to this list have mentioned the importance of preserving images for posterity. While this is important, it is equally important to take the trouble to preserve - alongside the images - the words and reputations of those who made them. Repeating inaccurate allegations serves no-one, and in this case harms both the reputation of the very brave photojournalists who made those images, and the memories of the courageous soldiers pictured there. I apologise for the long message, the copyright infringement, the Off Topic posting, and any typos which may have crept in. I make no apology whatsoever for the tone of righteous indignation in my contribution to this message. D