Daily Photo #11

AP Photo / copyright-Alfred Eisenstaedt / Life Magazine

"The Kiss", On August 14, 1945, Alfred Eisenstaedt took one of the most iconic pictures of all time of a sailor kissing a nurse in Times Square, minutes after they heard of Japan’s surrender to the United States. Two weeks later LIFE magazine published that image. It became one of the most famous WWII photographs in history (and the most celebrated photograph ever published in the world’s dominant photo-journal), a cherished reminder of what it felt like for the war to finally be over. 

A sailor sweeps a nurse off her feet with a kiss in New York’s Times Square in this famous photograph taken by Alfred Eisenstaedt on the day Japan surrendered to end World War II.

Contact Sheet

George Mendonsa, now over 92 years old, still remembers kissing that nurse in Times Square. Born and raised on the water, Mendonsa grew up in a family of commercial fisherman in Newport, R.I., and decided to join the Navy once the Army started drafting men for the war...

Students do a daily "Bell Work" activity analyzing a significant or historical photo. They must make written comments about the composition, contrast, focus, balance, framing and statements each photo is making. This is our daily warm up exercise.

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