[Leica] Re: eisenstaedt on the vj day photo

[Guy Bennett <guybnt@idt.net>]

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>Not to start a long drawn out debate (like the flag raising), but, in the
>current
>Life Magazine Photo issue (quite good, IMO), there is the famous "Sailor
>Kissing the Nurse in Times Square "shot. I seem to remember (which means I
>can't remember more than a foggy haze where I read it) that the sailor was
>practically assaulting the unwilling nurse! Does anyone know anything
>about this? I didn't think LIFE would comment about this - if it were true
>and they knew it.  The photo is too famous (to be controversial). And, to
>keep on topic, Did Eisentaedt use a Leica?
>sam alexander (a block away from where this took place).


john loengard: you have said that your best known picture is of a sailor
kissing a nurse on v-j day.

alfred eisenstaedt: four or five different photographers got assignments to
go to different places in n.y. to photograph the celebration, and I was
assigned to times square. there were thousands of people milling around....
Everybody was kissing each other, civilians, marines, people, soldiers and
so on. and there was also a navy man running, grabbing anybody, you know,
kissing. i ran ahead of him because i had leica cameras around my neck,
focused from 10 feet to infinity. you had only to shoot; you don't have to
fumble around. i ran ahead and looked back all the time. i didn't even know
what was going on, until he grabbed something in white. and i stood there,
and they kissed. and i snapped five times. a reporter was with me, but we
were separated. i turned the film in at 8p.m. at life magazine. next day
they told me, what a great picture! i said 'which picture?' i forgot
already. had no idea. was a snapshot, an...accident.

j.l.: do you think it's a good picture?

a.e.: i don't know, but i think it's the most successful picture time inc.
has ever published.

j.l.: do you like it?

a.e.: as a great picture? no, i don't.

from 'life photographers: what they saw.' john loengard, ed. (boston, ny,
toronto, london: bullfinch press, 1998), 23-24.

'what they saw' is a fascinating book, a series of interviews with life
photographers, from the early years up to the end. it's their story of how
the photos were made, what it was like working for life magazine. it's also
an interesting historiographical document on what may very well have been
the golden age of photojournalism.

guy
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<excerpt>Not to start a long drawn out debate (like the flag raising),
but, in the current

Life Magazine Photo issue (quite good, IMO), there is the famous
"Sailor Kissing the Nurse in Times Square "shot. I
<italic>seem</italic> to remember (which means I can't remember more
than a foggy haze where I read it) that the sailor was practically
assaulting the unwilling nurse! Does anyone know anything about this? I
didn't think LIFE would comment about this - if it were true and they
knew it.  The photo is too famous (to be controversial). And, to keep
on topic, Did Eisentaedt use a Leica?

sam alexander (a block away from where this took place).

</excerpt>


john loengard: you have said that your best known picture is of a
sailor kissing a nurse on v-j day.


alfred eisenstaedt: four or five different photographers got
assignments to go to different places in n.y. to photograph the
celebration, and I was assigned to times square. there were thousands
of people milling around.... Everybody was kissing each other,
civilians, marines, people, soldiers and so on. and there was also a
navy man running, grabbing anybody, you know, kissing. i ran ahead of
him because i had leica cameras around my neck, focused from 10 feet to
infinity. you had only to shoot; you don't have to fumble around. i ran
ahead and looked back all the time. i didn't even know what was going
on, until he grabbed something in white. and i stood there, and they
kissed. and i snapped five times. a reporter was with me, but we were
separated. i turned the film in at 8p.m. at life magazine. next day
they told me, what a great picture! i said 'which picture?' i forgot
already. had no idea. was a snapshot, an...accident.


j.l.: do you think it's a good picture?


a.e.: i don't know, but i think it's the most successful picture time
inc. has ever published.


j.l.: do you like it?


a.e.: as a great picture? no, i don't.


from 'life photographers: what they saw.' john loengard, ed. (boston,
ny, toronto, london: bullfinch press, 1998), 23-24.


'what they saw' is a fascinating book, a series of interviews with life
photographers, from the early years up to the end. it's their story of
how the photos were made, what it was like working for life magazine.
it's also an interesting historiographical document on what may very
well have been the golden age of photojournalism.


guy

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