This Week in Photography History
Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima was taken on February 23, 1945 with a Speed Graphic press camera at 1/400 by Joe Rosenthal, photographer for the Associated Press following the Marines. He was looking for a position to shoot from when, “out of the corner of my eye, I had seen the men start the flag up. I swung my camera and shot the scene,” without viewfinder composition. This was the second raising of the flag on the island, the first flag having been deemed too small, and was carried out during heavy bombarding to suppress surrounding Japanese forces.
I love informing people that this photo was staged. This and Dorothea Lange’s Migrant Mother to name another. Just...
Completely bullshit. This was staged.
that he used, with black war time trim