Facts Behind Famous Photos
“A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you the less you know” —Diane Arbus
The best photos reel us in and force us to engage with them. Sometimes enlightening, sometimes inspiring and sometimes enraging, the most memorable photography often embodies the best and worst of nations and people. Yes, a picture already speaks a thousand words, but a few more couldn’t hurt.
1. Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima
On February 23, 1945, Joe Rosenthal shot this photo of five Marines and one Navy corpsman raising a U.S. flag on Mt. Suribachi, on the fifth day of a battle that claimed the lives of 6,800 Americans and 21,000 Japanese.
A smaller flag was initially raised, but a commander called for a larger, more easily-visible replacement to both inspire his men and demoralise his opponents.
Rosenthal’s photo shows this second raising, which became a patriotic symbol of unity and won Rosenthal a Pulitzer Prize.
2. Lunch Atop a Skyscraper
This famous picture, depicting construction workers having lunch on a girder on top of a skyscraper in Rockefeller Center, New York, is actually a staged publicity photo intended to drum up excitement for the project’s impending completion (I guess construction workers don't really eat their lunch on steel girders).
Still, they really are dangling their feet 850 feet above the ground, harness-free.
3. Migrant Mother
This image of an impoverished woman with two of her seven children at a pea-pickers camp in Nipomo, California was shot by photographer Dorothea Lange in 1936. The photo was taken to document the plight of migrant agricultural workers and was published in newspapers, prompting the government to deliver food aid to the Nipomo camp. The woman, 32 years old at the time and identified decades later as Florence Owens Thompson, was critical of Lange and stated that she felt the photo was exploitative and wished it hadn’t been taken. She also expressed regret she hadn’t made any money from it. Thompson departed this life at the age of 80 in 1983.
4. Winston Churchill, December 30, 1941
One of the most iconic portraits of Churchill was taken by Yousuf Karsh after the prime minister had spoken to the Canadian Parliament in 1941. Churchill had lit a fresh cigar beforehand, and Karsh asked him to remove it for the photo.
When he refused, Karsh stepped forward, said “Forgive me, sir,” and removed the cigar himself, resulting in that less-than-thrilled facial expression.
