VJ Day in Times Square
VJ Day in Times Square is the title of a photo by the German-American photo reporter Alfred Eisenstaedt . It was created on August 14, 1945, the day of Japan's unconditional surrender in World War II , which in the United States (USA) is also known as “ Victory over Japan Day ” or “VJ Day” for short. The photo is one of the most famous photographs from the Second World War and shows a sailor of the US Navy , a nurse holds in his arms and kisses. It appeared in the August 27, 1945 issue of Life Magazine and became a symbol of hope and spontaneous joy at the end of the war throughout the USA.
Another shot by Victor Jorgensen , a US Navy photographer, titled Kissing the War Goodbye , shows the same scene from a different perspective.
Origin and Effect
The photo technical details were, according to Alfred Eisenstaedt an exposure time of 1 / 125 second, an f-number from 5.6 to 8, and Kodak Super Double X as a film in a camera company Leica . He described the creation of the picture as follows:
"In Times Square on VJ Day, I saw a sailor running along the street grabbing 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. But none of the pictures that were possible pleased me. Then suddenly, in a flash, I saw something white being grabbed. I turned around and clicked the moment the sailor kissed the nurse. If she had been dressed in a dark dress I would never have taken the picture. If the sailor had worn a white uniform, the same. I took exactly four pictures. It was done within a few seconds. "
“On VJ Day, I saw a sailor walking down the street in Times Square, pulling every girl he saw to himself. It made no difference (to him) whether she was a grandmother, stocky, thin, or old. I ran in front of him with my Leica and looked back over my shoulder. But I didn't like any of the possible pictures. Then suddenly I saw him grab something white in a flash. I turned around and caught the moment when the seaman kissed the nurse. If she had been dressed in dark clothes I would never have taken this picture. Nor if the seaman had been wearing a white uniform. I took exactly four pictures. Everything happened in a few seconds. "
The photo appeared on the first page of Life Magazine as part of a series of 14 photos entitled "The Men of War Kiss from Coast to Coast," and was the only full-page image in the series. Since it was first published, it has been one of the most popular motifs from World War II. The popularity of the photo in the USA is comparable to the photo “ Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima ” by photographer Joe Rosenthal , which shows the erection of the American flag during the Battle of Iwo Jima . The image of the kissing sailor is still available in the form of posters and framed prints to this day. Since 2005, an event has been held annually in Times Square on the anniversary of the picture's taking, in which couples, sometimes in appropriate disguise, recreate the scene of the picture.
Various factors have contributed to the effect of the picture. In terms of photography, it can be rated as a successful shot, measured against the state of the art of photography at the time and the circumstances in which it was created. It is sharp , rich in contrast and balanced in terms of the distribution of the picture elements, and has not been created, edited or otherwise manipulated. The posture of the two participants resembles a couple dancing in ballet and thus conveys the romanticizing perception of kissing scenes in classic stage plays. According to cultural and communication scholars, probably the greatest part of the effect of the picture was due to the fact that it symbolized the nationwide collective joy at the end of the war by two individual people who - as a soldier and as a nurse - in the perception of the The public stood on behalf of the people who, through their self-sacrifice, made the greatest contribution to the victory of the United States. On the other hand, the fact that the faces of the two participants cannot be recognized also contributed to the fact that millions of people could identify with the picture.
Image by Victor Jorgensen
Another shot of the same scene, titled “Kissing the War Goodbye”, was taken by Victor Jorgensen , a US Navy photographer, from a slightly different perspective. Jorgensen's picture shows a little less details of Times Square and what is happening in the immediate vicinity. In addition, the two main characters are not shown in full, and the shot is a little darker and more blurred than the photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt. In contrast to the photo by Eisenstaedt, the picture by Victor Jorgensen is in the public domain because it was photographed by a member of an institution subordinate to the US government during his service. But it did not reach the popularity of the photo "VJ Day in Times Square".
Identity of those involved
Since Alfred Eisenstaedt did not have the opportunity to ask for more information from the two parties in the hectic of the celebrations in Times Square , their identity was long disputed. For example, several people claimed to be the nurse in the photo, including Edith Cullen Shain (1918-2010) from Los Angeles , Greta Zimmer Friedman (1924-2016) from Frederick, Maryland, and Barbara Sokol from Derby, Connecticut . Alfred Eisenstaedt himself supported Edith Shain's view.
With regard to the sailor, there are around 20 men who have expressed their respective claims in public. These include two people who, on the basis of closer investigations, actually come into question as the seaman in question. For George Mendonsa (1923–2019) from Newport, Rhode Island , the results of an image analysis carried out in 2005 on behalf of the Naval War College speak for themselves . Among other things, matches were found with regard to scars and tattoos , as far as they can be seen in the photo. In contrast, the claim of Glenn McDuffie (1927-2014) from Houston , which has been held for many years, is supported by a physiognomic study of body proportions and other biometric features carried out by an expert from the Houston Police Department in 2007 .
A book by Lawrence Verria and George Galdorisi, published in 2012 in the Naval Institute Press, comes to the clear conclusion that the parties involved were George Mendonsa and Greta Zimmer Friedman (1924-2016).
Time of admission
The time of the recording was unknown for a long time, as even Eisenstaedt could not tell the time. A team led by physics professor Donald Olson tried to find out the time in a study. First of all, the watch in the Bond department store shows that the minute hand was pointing to ten to the full hour. With the help of the shadow of the Loew building, the angle of the sun could be calculated. This stood at 22.7 °. This resulted in a time of 17:51 Eastern Time .
Artistic processing
The image was the template for the sculpture "Unconditional Surrender" (unconditional surrender) by artist J. Seward Johnson , which was unveiled on the 60th anniversary of VJ Day in Times Square .
literature
- Ian Jeffrey: The Photo Book. Phaidon, London 2000, ISBN 0-7148-3937-X , p. 134
- Robert Hariman, John Louis Lucaites: The Times Square Kiss: Iconic Photography and Civic Renewal in US Public Culture. In: Journal of American History. 94/2007. Organization of American Historians, pp. 122-132, ISSN 0021-8723
- Lawrence Verria, George Galdorisi: The Kissing Sailor: The Mystery Behind the Photo That Ended World War II , Naval Institute Press 2012
Individual evidence
- ^ Edith Shain, nurse kissing Navy man in Eisenstaedt's WWII photo, dies at 91 In: The Washington Post , June 24, 2010
- ↑ Famous Picture Collection (Engl.)
- ^ Eli Rosenberg: Greta Friedman, Who Claimed to Be the Nurse in a Famous VJ Day Photo, Dies at 92. In: New York Times. September 10, 2016, accessed on September 11, 2016 .
- ↑ The "kissing sailor" from Times Square is dead
- ↑ Jenna Garrett: How a Physicist Solved the Mystery of an Iconic Photo. zero. In: WIRED. July 7, 2015, accessed August 14, 2015 .
- ↑ Lydia Klöckner: Times Square photo: New York in a kissable mood. When was the famous Times Square photo taken? A conversation with the physicist Donald Olson, who found out. In: ZEIT ONLINE. ZEIT ONLINE GmbH, August 14, 2015, accessed on August 14, 2015 .
Web links
- VJday Times Square Kiss - FamousPictures Magazine Copy of the picture with information