From: "William Robb" > ---- Original Message ----- From: "John Sessoms" > Subject: Re: RE: Goin' to Montanaaaaaa! > >>>> I suspect many people just missed the reference because he's so often >>>> billed as "W.Eugene Smith". One of Life magazines most famous shooters >>>> and responsible for some of its best known photos. >>>> >>> My parents never subscribed to it, so while familiar with the magazine >>> LIFE, I wouldn't likely know much about photographers that pre-date me >>> by half a century. I'm sure I've seen his photos though. >> He was the *other* photographer on Iwo Jima with the Marines in 1945 ... >> the guy Rosenthal beat to the top of the hill. >> > > I don't think W.Eugene Smith was even there. I've never seen him > mentioned as part of that picture, which was, for all intents, a > staged propoganda shot, being the second flag raising done that > morning on Mt. Surbachi. > > William Robb > Both of them were photojournalists assigned to cover the Marine invasion of Iwo Jima. Rosenthal was working for AP and Smith was working for Life magazine.
I don't know if Smith was even on that part of the island, so the comment about Rosenthal "beating him to the top" was meant as humor. But Smith's photographs of the Marines on Iwo Jima are themselves iconic, particularly the shot of the marine drinking from his canteen, even if they didn't get the publicity Rosenthal's photograph garnered. Rosenthal's shot is no way "staged". If nothing else, it's a prime example of the efficacy of Weegee's aphorism about how to take good press photos - "f/8 and be there". Two flags were raised over Iwo Jima that day. The first flag raising was photographed by a Marine photographer. For whatever reason the Marine Corps brass decided that first flag wasn't big enough and ordered a second flag to replace it. Rosenthal photographed that second flag raising. > Rosenthal's story, told again and again with virtually no variation > over the years, is this: > > On Feb. 23, 1945, four days after D-Day at Iwo Jima, he was making his > daily trek to the island on a Marine landing craft when he heard that > a flag was being raised atop Mount Suribachi, a volcano at the > southern tip of the island. > Upon landing, Rosenthal hurried toward Suribachi, lugging along his > bulky Speed Graphic camera, the standard for press photographers at > the time. Along the way, he came across two Marine photographers, Pfc. > Bob Campbell, shooting still pictures, and Staff Sgt. Bill Genaust, > shooting movies. The three men proceeded up the mountain together. > > About halfway up, they met four Marines coming down. Among them was > Sgt. Lou Lowery, a photographer for Leatherneck magazine, who said the > flag had already been raised on the summit. He added that it was worth > the climb anyway for the view. Rosenthal and the others decided to > continue. > At the top, Rosenthal tried to find the Marines who had raised the > first flag, figuring he could get a group picture of them beside it. > When no one seemed willing or able to tell him where they were, he > turned his attention to a group of Marines preparing the second flag > to be raised. > "I thought of trying to get 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 about 35 feet. > > "Here the ground sloped down toward the center of the volcanic crater, > and I found that the ground line was in my way. I put my Speed Graphic > down and quickly piled up some stones and a Jap sandbag to raise me > about two feet (I am only 5 feet 5 inches tall) and I picked up the > camera and climbed up on the pile. I decided on a lens setting between > f-8 and f-11, and set the speed at 1-400th of a second. > > "At this point, 1st Lt. Harold G. Shrier ... stepped between me and > the men getting ready to raise the flag. When he moved away, Genaust > came across in front of me with his movie camera and then took a > position about three feet to my right. 'I'm not in your way, Joe?' he > called. > > "'No,' I shouted, 'and there it goes.' > > "Out of the corner of my eye, as I had turned toward Genaust, I had > seen the men start the flag up. I swung my camera, and shot the scene." > Rosenthal didn't know what he had taken. He certainly had no inkling > he had just taken the best photograph of his career. To make sure he > had something worth printing, he gathered all the Marines on the > summit together for a jubilant shot under the flag that became known > as his "gung-ho" picture. > On the caption, Rosenthal had written: "Atop 550-foot Suribachi Yama, > the volcano at the southwest tip of Iwo Jima, Marines of the Second > Battalion, 28th Regiment, Fifth Division, hoist the Stars and Stripes, > signaling the capture of this key position." > > At the same time, he told an AP correspondent, Hamilton Feron, that he > had shot the second of two flag raisings that day. Feron wrote a story > mentioning the two flags. http://www.ap.org/pages/about/pulitzer/rosenthal.html Here are photos of *ALL* of the flag raisings on Iwo Jima. http://www.iwojima.com/raising/raisingb.htm This is the "posed" shot, the "gung-ho" picture - taken *AFTER* the flag raising. http://www.iwojima.com/raising/l721flag.gif -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
