The Unforgettable Alfred Eienstaedt

If you?re a photographer, or want to be, Alfred Eisenstaedt is probably a name you know well. He is one of the most famous photographers of the 1900s. Alfred, known as ?Eisie? to his friends, was born December 6, 1898 in Dirschau, West Prussia, Germany. In 1916 he served the German army in World War I, and was wounded in both legs in April 1918. After the war, in the early 1920s, he started freelancing for Berliner Tageblatt, while working as a salesman. At the end of the 1920s, Eisenstaedt quit being a salesman and became a photographer. In 1935 he left Germany and emigrated to Jackson Heights, Queens, New York.

In his early years, he covered Hitler?s rise to power, and also did a spread of Ethiopia before the Italian invasion. In 1932 he got a picture of a waiter ice skating in St. Moritz, and in 1933 Joseph Goebbles at the League of Nations in Geneva. But, in 1936 when he got hired by Life magazine his career took off. After one of his pictures took the cover on the second issue, he became one of the leading photographers for the magazine. With over 2500 photo-essays and 90 cover shots you can see why. The most famous of his shots was taken in 1945 in Time Square of a sailor kissing a nurse during the V-J Day celebration.

Eisenstaedt, in the 66 years of his career, has taken pictures of just about everything. His pictures include, Children at the Puppet Theater and An American Block. He also took pictures of John F. Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe, and Winston Churchill. He has been recognized with many awards, such as the National Medal of the Arts and the Photographic Society of America Achievement Award. He has also written many books such as Witness To Our Time and The Eye of Eisenstaedt. He died in 1995 at the Menemsha Inn at midnight. His sister-in-law Lucille Kaye and close friend William E. Marks were there with him.

Tags: ...