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Tuesday, October 16, 2012

The World's Most Famous Kiss



I've always been an admirer of Life Magazine's iconic and provocative magazine cover photos like this one. 

Here's the story behind it as recounted by one of the world's most admired and respected photographers, the late Alfred Eisenstaed.

One of the most famous photographs by Eisenstaedt was captured in the 1945 VJ Day on Times Square 

“I saw a sailor running along the street grabbing any and every girl in sight.Whether she was a grandmother, stout, thin, old, didn’t make any difference.I was running ahead of him with my Leica looking back over my shoulder…
Then suddenly, in a flash, I saw something white being grabbed.
I turned around and clicked the moment the sailor kissed the nurse.”  

For him, this picture was one of the most monumental ones, most notably because ”People tell me that when I am in heaven they will remember this picture”.

Edith Shain, the nurse who was captured in an iconic photograph being kissed by a celebrating sailor in Times Square on V-J Day, died Sunday at age 91.

Shain had been working at Doctor's Hospital in New York City on Aug. 14, 1945 when she was grabbed and smooched by an unknown soldier, Reuters reported. 

Alfred Eisenstaedt's photo of the moment was published in Life magazine and became famous.







In San Diego, California, USA, they have a statue that recreates the famous life magazine cover taken during the celebration of the end of world war two. 

Copyright infringement not intended

3 comments:

  1. some of our present crop of lensmen can learn a thing or two from Alfred. The most provocative photos after all shouldn't be staged but captures the moment when it happens

    ReplyDelete
  2. yes..not a scripted one..caught in act..

    ReplyDelete

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