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Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima, by Joe Rosenthal of the Associated PressJoe Rosenthal, the photographer who captured the iconic war image Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima, has had a block in downtown San Francisco named after him.
Not many photographers are defined by one single image as Rosenthal is. His photo taken atop Mount Suribachi shows four marines raising the American flag during the Battle of Iwo Jima in the final stages of World War II in the Pacific Theater on February 23, 1945.
It has a claim to being the most famous photo taken in U.S. history having been produced on postage stamps, war bond posters, and recreated as statues. It also won the 1945 Pulitzer Prize for Photography.
Joe Rosenthal in 1990. Photo by Nancy Wong.But Why San Francisco?
After the war had ended, Rosenthal still needed to work. Even though he took the photo it was the Associated Press who owned the rights to it and the San Francisco Chronicle reports that Rosenthal made less than $10,000 from it in his lifetime.
So Rosenthal took a job at the Chronicle and spent the rest of his career there. Fellow staff photographer Gary Fong describes Rosenthal as “humble and convivial” who “hit his deadlines like everyone else”.
“I always thought the flag-raising image didn’t allow him to expand on the craft as well as he could have,” Fong says. “It was the only photo he was known for, and it kind of hurt his career in my personal opinion.
Rosenthal’s long association with the Bay Area led to a drive to name a street after him. The U.S. Marine Corps Combat Correspondents Association and the San Francisco War Memorial Board of Trustees both led the campaign which ultimately was passed in October.
The Chronicle speculates that Rosenthal, who died in 2006 age 94, would have been deeply humble about the street being named after him and would have used it as a chance to laud the army men who fought in the Battle of Iwo Jima.
“I took the picture,” Rosenthal once famously quipped. “The Marines took Iwo Jima.”
English (US) ·