August 24: Alfred Eisenstaedt’s 35 mm. Leica

Alfred Eisenstaedt, one of the first four staff photographers of Life magazine, was born in West Prussia on this date in 1898. Eisenstaedt’s most famous photograph was of a sailor spontaneously kissing a young woman in Times Square on August 14, 1945, V-J Day. He also photographed a 1933 meeting between Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini in Italy, and Joseph Goebbels’ appearance at the League of Nations in Geneva that same year (Goebbels scowled for the photograph when he learned that Eisenstaedt was Jewish); two years later, Eisenstaedt fled Nazi Germany. Known as the “Father of Photo-Journalism,” Eisie, as he was called, was among the first to use a 35 mm. camera (usually a Leica) to capture moments in natural light. He produced ninety-two covers for Life as well as thirteen books. He also shot some of Sophia Loren’s and Marilyn Monroe’s most natural candid photographs, and produced the famous picture of children following a parading drum major in 1950. Eisenstaedt lived to be 96.
“It’s more important to click with people than to click the shutter.”—Alfred Eisenstaedt
Watch the first of a four-part interview with Eisenstaedt as part of the 1983 BBC Master Photographers series:

Little known fact about “The Kiss”: the smiling, dark-haired woman seen just over the sailor’s right shoulder is his date, and later, wife. Read “The true story behind the iconic V-J Day sailor and ‘nurse’ smooch”