The man who took one of the most iconic images of the Second World War, of US Marines raising the flag on Mount Suribachi on the island of Iwo Jima, has died. The famous photograph actually is of the second flag raising since the first flag was deemed too small. Rosenthal almost did not go to take the photograph when he found out a flag had already been raised. He won a Pulitzer prize for the shot.
"Out of the corner of my eye, I had seen the men start the flag up. I swung my camera and shot the scene. That is how the picture was taken, and when you take a picture like that, you don't come away saying you got a great shot. You don't know."
"Millions of Americans saw this picture five or six days before I did, and when I first heard about it, I had no idea what picture was meant."
He recalled that days later, when a colleague congratulated him on the picture, he thought he meant another, posed shot he had taken later that day, of Marines waving and cheering at the base of the flag.
He added that if he had posed the flag-raising picture, as some skeptics have suggested over the years, "I would, of course, have ruined it" by choosing fewer men and making sure their faces could be seen.
Standing near Rosenthal was Marine Sgt. Bill Genaust, the motion picture cameraman who filmed the same flag-raising. He was killed in combat just days later. A frame of Genaust's film is nearly identical to the Rosenthal photo.
The AP photo quickly became the subject of posters, war-bond drives and a U.S. postage stamp.
You can search for more of Rosenthal's work at the Newseum. Rest in Peace.
UPDATE: A very well done obituary from the San Francisco Chronicle, where Rosenthal had a 35-year career after leaving the AP.
