Really about a photo that someone else took

[UrsaMajor]

My images below are really a tribute to a photo that was - in the United States - one of the most famous images to come out of World War II. The reason for this posting is that I have read that one of the people in that image recently died.

The original picture was taken in New York City, showing the celebration in Times Square on VJ Day. In the picture a sailor is kissing a Navy nurse, and that image has become the iconic representation in the US of the exuberant celebration at the end of WWII. The nurse in that picture died last Saturday at the age of 91.

That photo is such a landmark image in this country that when the government placed the aircraft carrier "Midway" on permanent display in San Diego harbor as a war memorial, they also erected a statue on the shore next to the ship that duplicates the image of the photograph. Here are a couple of images that I took in 2007 of that statue. The first image is from an angle that attempted to duplicate the view of the original photo. The second image is an attempt to provide a perspective that will let you know the scale of what you will see when there in person.

With best wishes,
- Tom -

[Winston]

The photographer was Alfred Eisenstaedt.
The photo was a cover for Life Magazine.

[Birma]

Hi Tom - interesting picture - I was vaguely aware of the Times Square original - as you say an iconic image. The first shot had me totally fooled as to the perspective.

[Greg Beetham]

Yeah I've seen that shot before....somewhere, so you must have got it pretty close too the original in overall style, and I wasn't prepared for the huge size either, a little bit of a surprise, both good photos. I saw the jets on the flightdeck in the background and thought 'jets? where's the Corsairs, the USS Midway was WWII carrier I thought, so after a little research/history lesson it turns out the Midway served in the Navy for a long time, including the Vietnam war, where on one notible occasion two prop powerd A1 Skyraiders downed a Mig17 with cannon fire, amazing stuff, story here. http://www.midwaysailor.com/midway1960/ ... htops.html
Greg

ps. Speaking famous photos, the other famous photo I remember was the shot of the Marines putting the flag pole up, on Iwo Jima maybe?

[KevinBarrett]

My first thought: "Weird, somebody's reenacting the VJ-Day kiss in front of an aircraft-carrier. How did they get that perspective?!"

[UrsaMajor]

Speaking famous photos, the other famous photo I remember was the shot of the Marines putting the flag pole up, on Iwo Jima maybe?

The photo you describe of six US Marines raising the flag on the top of Mount Suribachi is probably the most famous picture of WWII, at least within the US. That photo was taken by Joe Rosenthal and I have read that it is the most reproduced image of all time. FWIW, of the six Marines in the picture, three were subsequently killed on Iwo Jima.

Incidentally, that image is another photograph that has been reproduced as a statue by the US government. The statue - lifesize in this case - stands at the Arlington National Military Cemetary in Virginia. If my memory is correct, an actual flag is used on the statue, and it is formally raised and lowered each day by a color guard.

With best wishes,
- Tom -

[Dusty]

ps. Speaking famous photos, the other famous photo I remember was the shot of the Marines putting the flag pole up, on Iwo Jima maybe?

Yes, it was Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima. An old (as in age) friend of mine was there at the time. He said he was too busy getting shot at to see the raising, but did see it flying there before he was wounded and evacuated.

The monument now stand in Arlington, Virginia (Washington, D.C. suburb) as the United States Marine Corps War Memorial. Pretty impressive.

Dusty

[Dusty]

Actually, it's quite a bit bigger than life size. See: http://www.nps.gov/archive/gwmp/usmc.htm

Dusty

[UrsaMajor]

Actually, it's quite a bit bigger than life size. See: http://www.nps.gov/archive/gwmp/usmc.htm

Ah yes, the fallacy of relying upon memory. I remembered that the statue uses an actual flag rather than a bronze flag, and for some reason I assumed that the flag was the same size as the one that flew on Mount Suribachi. Since I remembered that the flag was in proportion to the human figures, I assumed that the humans were life-size.

The joys of getting old . . .

With best wishes,
- Tom -

[Greg Beetham]

Yeah I was surprised at the size of that Marine memorial one as well, I had a read about it last night, overall height is 78 feet if I remember correctly, but I agree with Tom, if you don't see anyone standing beside the memorial in a photo of it, it would be easy too get the impression that it's not THAT big at all while mentally relating too the photo of the real event....Ha! the M1 rifle on one of the figures is 16 feet long...wowzer! I wouldn't like too hump that baby around for long...
Greg